Sons of Liberty Digistyle COMPLETE
by the7joker7
Summary: The third part in a saga of stories. Two years after Shadow Moses, Snake is a world reknowned hero and champion of the people. But a mission to expose yet another form of Metal Gear becomes oh so much more.
1. Chapter 1

Alright, here we go with Part 3 of my 3 part series on Metal Gear Solid with a Digimon twist. This one will become the most complicated and hard to follow of them all, so buckle your seatbelt. I'm hugging the actual MGS storyline as much as I can, but may break away here and there. Just go with the flow! And of course, if you haven't, you may want to read parts 1 and 2 first.

And please R&R!

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Chapter 1: Philanthropy

We start off right where we left off in Shadow Moses, our hero riding off into the sunset with the girl. A perfect ending. But it wasn't perfect, and it was far from an ending. Where to begin...

Just weeks after the events of Shadow Moses, Solid Snake decided to break Naomi Hunter out of custody. He didn't blame her for wanting her dead, and felt she deserved a second chance. It was then that Snake learned that Naomi had programmed FoxDie to strike at a random time. For weeks, the dark cloud of that imminent death hovered over him...but eventually, he forgot. He could fall dead at any time, but for the moment, he lives for the present, ignoring this unpleasant fact.

For some time, Meryl and Snake hid in the wilderness of Damon, probably in a relationship. Who knows? But Snake was a soldier, and when the call came to return to the battlefield, he came. Revolver Ocelot, better known to us as Ken, had survived Shadow Moses, and had sold Metal Gear's data on the black market. Many countries were developing their own versions of Metal Gear. Soon, every state, group, and dotcom had their own version of the nuclear deathmobile.

Otacon gave Snake a call shortly after this. He convinced Snake he could make a difference. So they formed an anti-Metal Gear organization, Philanthropy, which was officially recognized by the UN. And over the next two years, they destroyed dozens of rogue Metal Gears. He and Patamon, with Otacon the hacker working as backup. Snake became a hero in the public eye once again.

In 2060, our story begins. Otacon received a tip from...someone...about a new, highly advanced Metal Gear. Metal Gear RAY, developed by the Marines. So, as they did, Snake, Patamon, and Otacon planned a mission to find it, take photos of it, and leak them to the press so as to expose this to the public. RAY was being transported through the Green River on a tanker. The perfect opportunity to infiltrate.

The whole thing stank. But their noses had been out in the cold too long.

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Rain poured down. Hard. If Snake didn't know any better, he might think Kamiya bridge would collapse under the pressure from it. But he knew that no matter how many cars sped over it, or how many people walked over it, it would stand firm. Just as Tai Kamiya had in the years before the digital world was...humanized.

That was the best word to avoid any problems. It may have not been the right word, but it was for the best.

Snake felt the rain beat down on the hood of his raincoat. He pulled the cigarette out from his mouth and threw it into the road, to be trampled by passing cars. Any moment now...he broke into a jog, then a run...he threw the raincoat off and instantly activated his stealth camoflague. Invisible to all but the most wary eye, he sprinted down the bridge, then suddenly turned and hurdled the railing. A bungee cord fired from his stealth suit onto the bridge, sticking, as he did.

Down he plunged, towards a massive Tanker passing below. The bungee slowed his fall after he got close to the stern deck, then slowly extended to bring him closer and closer. Finally, he cut the cord and fell the rest of the way down. He landed hard on his feet, kneeling to take the blow the best he could. Water splashed about him as he landed. Suddenly, electricity crackled from his body, and he suddenly turned visible. He looked at his hands, puzzled. This might be harder than they thought.

Little did he know, high above, a helicopter was hovering in midair. A man was watching him through binoculars from it. A familiar face. Ken. He twirled his Colt Single Action Pistol, or Revolver, watching Snake. "Our boy is right on schedule." He said to himself. "He'll know soon enough..."

He ran behind a winch on the deck, kneeled down for cover, and patched into 141.12. Otacon.

"You read me?"

"Loud and Clear."

"Kept you waiting? I'm at the 'sneak' point." He looked back down at himself. "The stealth camo's busted, landing impact."

"Sorry, you'll have to deal with it. We must have overused it. You're not in the military anymore."

"I didn't plan on relying on it anyway. I'll be fine."

"Good. Let's go over this one more time. This Metal Gear RAY...it seems to have been designed to wipe the floor with any other model. But beyond that, all I could find is that it's amphibious. And it calls itself an Anti-Metal Gear vehicle. Hence why it's under Marine Corps jurisidiction."

He peered out from behind his cover, peering through the rain at the decks above. He saw a couple of sentries, in ponchos, looking quite innocent.

"You're to make visual confirmation of RAY and get photographic evidence. First, though, I want you to go up to the bridge. We need to know where the tanker is headed."

"A little reconnaissance, huh?"

"Yes. There's too much we don't know about this RAY. Capabilities, deployment method -- we don't even know how close it is to completion. If we know where the testing arena is, I can start to draw some reasonable conclusions."

"Alright. I'll head to the bridge first."

"Remember, this is stealth. It would be best to not alert anyone. We're not terrorists. Avoid confrontations."

"I know, I know." He felt Patamon flap down on his head, settling down happily inspite the rain. Snake was oddly annoyed. "How long until human evolution gives us our own pair of wings?" He asked sarcastically. His entrance wasn't nearly as comfortable or pain-free as Patamon's.

"Well, there are DNAT injections for just that thing." Otacon dared to joke. "Anyway, don't forget you're part of a officially recognized by the UN organization now."

"Yes. Recognized, but still fringe." He reminded him.

Snake pulled out his weapon for this mission. A tranquilizer gun converted from a Beretta M92F. Not the greatest gun in the world, but these days scavenging on mission site was less and less likely to produce anything at all. It had a good suppressor and a very handy laser sight as well. It wasn't deadly, of course, but it would instantly knock out just about anything upon contact. The battery wouldn't last more than a few hundred shots, but that shouldn't be an issue. He quickly aimed and fired it at the ground in front of him, to check that it was functioning properly.

"Alright, good. Now let's check your equipment."

"If you say so." He pulled out a box of cigarettes and checked to make sure there were several still left inside. He cupped his hand over the top to protect it from the rain as he checked.

"Hey...Snake. Cigarettes? What's wrong with you?"

"It's kind of a lucky charm."

"You haven't read the surgeon general's warning, have you?"

They both laughed. Snake then pulled out his digital camera/binoculars, checking the scope and photography abilities of it. He zoomed in on one of the marines walking about the upper deck. "They look so...innocent."

"Hey. Earth to Snake. These are nice, upstanding Marines, not terrorists. Don't get caught; you're in stealth mode here."

"Sure. And a little beauty sleep never hurt anyone if it comes to that. Also, Otacon, are you sure of this intelligence?" Now that he was here, his usually sense of danger was kicking in.

"Absolutely. Hacked it out of Server's classified files myself."

"I'm wondering...we can't rule out that this might be a trap. There is a price on our heads."

"You're just paranoid."

"I hope so. Security should be tighter than this too." He remembered last time had rushed in blindly to do something when security was strangely lax.

"Check the cargo holds, I'm betting that's where RAY is being kept at any rate. After you check the bridge that is."

Through the pouring rain, he heard the faint roar of a helicopter. He turned his head and looked up through the rain and saw it, chopping through the air.

"A chopper?"

He turned his head back to one of the Marines, pacing back and forth innocently enough. Suddenly, a man in military fatigues came up behind him, and before he even knew what was happening, he stuck a knife right through his neck. Nice and silent.

He panned around to other Marine sentries he could spot from his vantage point. They too were being snuck up on from behind and stabbed through the neck. The bodies were then dragged to the edge of the boat and tossed overboard.

"Looks like we're not the only ones after Metal Gear tonight." Snake said, strangely calm. He was ready for anything generally, and this wasn't about to faze him. The chopper landed on a helipad on the other side of the tanker.

After a moment, even more soldiers appeared, panning around the boat, armed with some nasty looking weaponry.

"What's their game? Hijack? Otacon, how many people would you need to take over a tanker of this size?"

"I'd say about 18 people, since the ship is run by a computer."

Snake zoomed in on the rifle of one of the soldiers. "AKS-74u?" He turned to one of the guards that didn't have their face covered by a ski mask. Brown hair, brown mustache, appeared to be in his 50's. He looked to be ordering the other soldiers around. "Buffet." He said simply.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. No Marine Barber touched that head of hair." The man put on a hat as Snake snapped a picture of him. "I need an ID on this guy." He heard a second helicopter closing in on the boat. He turned around, ducking, looking up at it. "KA-60. Kasatka? Otacon, we need to get a fix on who they are."

"If that helicopter is a KA-60, they'd have to be some kind of military commandos."

"Not necessarily. It could be the KA-62, the civil model."

"Look, Snake...this mission just did get harder, I'll admit that much. But all we need is photographic evidence of RAY. So no pyrotechniques, okay? This is still stealth."

"Alright. I'll do my best."

"I'll be waiting at the Lazlow bridge, you have to be off the boat by then."

He stepped up and began walking, Patamon on his shoulder, gun out. Through the rain, it was hard to see anything or make an audible noise, so he had more wiggle room than usual. For the moment, in any case.

He pressed himself up against the wall and peered around the corner. Two soldiers...one at the top of the staircase right around the corner, the other on the lower level. He pivoted and fired off his tranquilizer twice at the two, sending them both to sleep instantly. Until he knew more, no reason to kill them.

He ran up the stairs, walked up to one of the sealed doors leading to the crew quarters, cranked the wheel to release the lock, pulled it open, and stepped inside.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Olga

He shook off as soon as he walked into a white hallway, the water draining off of him. The soldiers had only just secured the ship, so security shouldn't be up to it's usual standard. But he still had to be careful. Slowly, the pair crept down more thin bland hallways, around corners. Every now and then, they'd hear a guard patrolling. And sometimes, they'd pick up their radio to make a conformation that the area was secure.

This wasn't going to be easy.

He pressed himself up against the wall, hearing a guard patrol up and down the hall around the corner. If he knocked him out, in a few minutes, somebody would wonder why he wasn't reporting in after a few minutes and come looking. On discovering the body, an alarm might be raised. But there didn't appear to be an alternative, as there wasn't a secondary path to take.

He swung out from behind the wall and quickly shot the guard, sending him into dreamland. For good measure, he quickly picked the body up and walked into one of the locker rooms to the right. He shoved the body in a locker and locked it with a nearby combination lock.

He continued on through a sliding door into a gallery of sorts. Magazine racks, chairs, a bar. But more importantly to Snake, a staircase. He needed to continue going up. A guard sat at the foot of the staircase, looking down at his hands. Snake didn't waste any time sending him to sleep, dumping him behind the staircase, and running up through another door.

This pattern went on for some time, punctuated by the occasional camera to be avoided. Some uneventful staircases later, he came up to the bridge. Two men in orange jumpsuits were draped over the control panels, blood dripping from their mouths. He pushed one over rather rudely and began searching through the computer.

"Otacon, I got it. 35 degrees longitude, 58 degress latitude."

"500 miles off the coast of Alum, out in the middle of the Hondas. Looks like the prototype is all ready for solo testing. Combat worthy. The area's so far away, it looks like this is a stand-alone project. This Metal Gear must be designed for independent deployment, without assistance. Anyway, you've got to get down to the holds and find the actual Metal-"

Snake heard a loud bang from outside the bridge, out on the deck. His grunt of suprise cut off Otacon as he and Patamon looked outside. A woman was strolling around through the rain outside with her back turned. She was holding a radio.

"Hold that thought, Otacon. I've got something to take care of."

Cautiously, the two stepped outside. She was pacing about, talking into the radio.

"Ocelot has landed." A voice came into through the radio. So Ken was involved. "I'm on my way to the holds. Status?"

"Control room, communications and engine room are under control. All entry and exit points to the tanker holds secured. Infrared sensors placed and operational." Her voice was strangely...masculine. She looked a little...butch herself. As far as Snake could tell, she looked like she was from Buffet.

"Good work. The explosives?"

"Yes, they are ready."

"Good. Once we have what we came for, the tanker will be scuttled."

"What about the vehicle's pilot?"

"No one else can do it, only he went through the VR training." A pause. "Your part here is complete. Leave at once."

"No!" The woman yelled through the radio, pacing with more agitation. "It's not over yet!"

"I can see the moon...even in this storm. Pale as death. I have a bad feeling...and you swore to me you would leave the unit once this mission was complete. This is a country of liberty, Server, you will be fine!"

"But this is where I belong...with the unit!" She pulled out a USP pistol and looked at it. "I have nowhere else to go. Father, I want to stay and fight!"

"Olga, there is no choice to make! You are carrying my grandchild, remember?" Olga patted her stomach at these words. "Get on the helicopter, now!"

"Damn it!" She fumed as the connection cut. She looked up at the helicopter, hovering midair just above. After a moment, she waved it away furiously. It left. Snake took the opportunity to run up to her and aim his gun at her.

"Freeze!" He trained the laser point on her forehead. "Hands over your head, slowly!"

Slowly, she turned to face him, raising her hands as he commanded.

"Toss your gun overboard, slowly!" She did so, casually. "A woman? Show your face."

She laughed. "You men. You're all the same." Slowly, she took off her cap.

"Who are you?"

She let the cap go, the wind blew it in Snake's direction. It floated past him. "We are nomads. Wanderers." Olga made a small sidestep.

"I said don't move!"

"So you shoot unarmed women in Server?"

"I'm a nomad too. What else do you got there?" She looked her over from a distance. "Toss the knife." She tried to place it at the ground at her feet. "No! Overboard."

"You know what you're doing." She said. The Tanker then jerked violently. They almost lost their balance, but Snake kept his tranquilizer trained on this woman. And then...the rain stopped. "It stopped raining..." Olga noted.

And then she pulled her arms down, pointed the butt of the knife at Snake, and a bullet squeezed out of it. Snake only barely managed to duck it and get back behind his crate. Olga ran behind a storage rack near the other side of the deck.

"Scout knife with a surprise? You a Spetsnaz?"

"Huh. I think you deserve some credit. No one's ever dodged that shot of mine." She pulled out a second gun, matching the first perfectly. "But no one gets lucky twice, either!" She popped out from her cover and began firing at Snake's crate, blowing chunks of wood from it.

Patamon flew out towards her, intending to snap her neck, no doubt, but Snake held him back. He thought perhaps a little beauty sleep was more appropriate for this. He began firing off his gun at her position. She kept constantly moving and shooting, taking cover behind crates all over the deck. They couldn't get close to each other thanks to the firefight, so it became a sniper duel.

Olga was a tough woman. She withstood several tranquilizer shots without flinching. But when Snake popped out from behind a searchlight and hit her right in the neck, even she couldn't resist the powerful urge to pass out. She crumpled to the ground, grabbing her neck, the gun clattering to the ground. Snake and Patamon walked up to her, prodding her to be sure she was asleep.

Snake grabbed and pocketed the USP. Might come in handy. Then he swiveled his head around, seeing a small surveillance remote float in midair, making a quiet whirring noise. It was giving off several tiny clicks, but Snake didn't need that to know it must have been taking his picture. But beyond that, something else bothered Snake.

The rain started again, just as hard as before. Odd. But hardly high on his list of concerns.

"Otacon, the ship appears to be under their control. I think they must be from Buffet, but that's all I know."

"I ID'd the old man, I know who they are. He's Sergei Gurlukovich."

He recalled the name from Shadow Moses two years ago. "One of Ken's allies?"

"Yep. The GRU colonel. He was supposed to meet up with Ocelot-er, Ken, after Shadow Moses. I guess they're after Metal Gear. This changes everything."

"I saw a surveillance remote just now, it looked like the Cypher."

"A Marine Cypher-T?"

He laughed. "No. Get this, it was Army."

"First the Marines...then Buffet...then the Army? Geez. Ermm...Snake, there's something I should probably tell you now."

He sighed. This couldn't be good. "What?"

"We didn't dig up this info on Metal Gear...like we usually have to. I got an anonymous tip."

"You've never trusted those before. Why start now?"

"Well...I...I have a younger sister. A stepsister. I only knew her for two years."

"You've never mentioned her. But what's the point?"

"The sender of the tip was 'E.I.' I always called my sister 'E.I.' since her first name was Emma."

"Emma Izumi?"

"Yep. I figured it was a coincidence, but I couldn't get it out of my mind. I couldn't come to any other conclusion." A pause. "I actually haven't seen her in over ten years."

"You think it might be a trap?"

"Well, after I got the tip, I broke into top secret Server files to confirm it was real. But still, Snake, watch your back...maybe I screwed up."

"I've got a USP now, so I can really take them on."

"Don't make too much noise. This is still stealth."

"Gotcha." He signed off and walked back inside. "Alright, to the holds." They began descending back down the very staircases they had ascended not too long ago.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Backstabitis

After going back down to where he started, he found another set of stairs leading down. He cut through a few guards on his way to the engine room. Sets of railings. The guards got more and more concentrated as he went on, he supposed that alarms to his presence were being raised, but they lacked the manpower to do much about it. Patamon felt good about snapping some necks as well. Good to be on the job.

As he walked down a long pathway, he heard an announcement ring through the system of radios wired through the tanker. "Lazlow Bridge checkpoint passed." Dammit. Oh well. "All non-essential personnel, report to the holds in ten minutes time for the scheduled briefing session with the Commandant. You are ordered to continue manning your posts until that time."

He continued jogging down the long hallway, until he heard the soft creak of a hatch being opened. He pushed himself against the wall, just seeing a hatch in the side of the hall being pushed open. He drew his gun, crouching down.

Three guards emerged from the other side of the hatch. The last one sealed it behind him. The first one patched into his radio.

"Colonel, we have sealed the stern hatch. The lift is also under our control."

"We're on the foredeck, about to descend to the holds."

"Sir, the marine commander has started his speech already."

"We will complete the preparations before he finishes."

"All communications to the hold have been severed. No one knows of our presence."

"Let no one down into the holds until we are out."

"Yes sir! We will secure your exit, with our lives if necessary."

"One more thing...My daughter. Keep her safe."

"Yes sir!" He disconnected. The three began walking towards Snake and Patamon. Soon, they'd know he was there, there wasn't anywhere to hide. May as well get the jump.

He slid out from the wall, USP out, blasting down the corridor without a sense of keeping quiet or conserving ammo. He took a few shots himself, but it was nothing his state of the art suit couldn't fix up. When a grenade flew at him, Patamon glupped it up and spat it back, effectively ending any threats from the soldiers. When the dust cleared, Snake counted a dozen bodies.

He stepped over them, through the hatch which the soldiers had come through in the first place.

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Of course, he wasn't aware there were in fact thirteen soldiers in the area. The thirteenth had been behind him, coming up after the fight. After seeing what Snake did to the first twelve, he stayed back and waited for him to cross through the hatch. Then, he ran up to the hatch and sealed it, locking it from the outside. No way to get out. He took a deep breath of relief. Of course, if anyone found out...

He heard footsteps behind him. He pivoted, rifle out. "Who goes there?!" A man in military fatigues. An old man, twirling a revolver about his finger, wearing boots. "Oh, Ocelot." He lowered his rifle. Ken stepped up right in front of him. "We thought you were with the colonel, why are you here?"

Suddenly, Ken grabbed the grip the revolver and aimed it point blank at the soldier's head. Before he had a chance to even react, Ken fired off a single round through his brain. He slowly fell to the ground. Ken turned as if he had done something as simple as clean the floor, walking away slowly. "The colonel will be joining you soon...comrade..." he whispered back to the dead body.

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Snake had reached the holds in the meantime. A group of Marines stood in a room, watching a projection screen. A black man in his 30's was giving a speech on it. His voice boomed out of speakers on either side of the room. Snake was on the catwalks above this scene, looking down on it.

"Snake, what's going on?"

"Otacon, it's taking longer than I expected. We're already past the bridge. We'll have to use another recovery point." A pause. "They might be planning to change course."

"What?"

"The exits to the deck are all sealed."

"What are they planning?"

"If they get Metal Gear, we're going right off the fringe." He peered down at the Marines. "The deck's been sealed off, so these guys have no idea the ship's been taken over. Anyway, I don't wanna have to fight these guys, for more reasons than one."

"Can you see Metal Gear?"

"No, i'll sneak around. It must be up ahead."

"Okay. Remember, get four photos. From the front, front-right, and front-left. Plus, a closeup of the Marines logo, wherever it might be. And...ermm...there is one little thing."

"Spit it out."

"It looks like someone's monitoring our transmission."

"What?! Who?"

"I don't know. All they're doing is watching -- it would creep me out less if they tried to interfere with our communications."

"Maybe that Cypher we saw?"

"Maybe. I've switched the encryption protocol for our burst transmission for now. Also, Snake, the commander's speech is only about seven minutes long. I hacked it out of his files just now. If he throws a joke or two in, a bit more, but get those pictures before he's done!"

"Got it." He moved forward, through the catwalks into the next room. He stayed to the shadows when he could, fearing greatly some Marine might inadvertently turn his head towards him. But they all kept their focus perfectly on their commander. They crossed to the next room...and there it was. In all it's beauty...if you could call it that. It had two hind legs, a almost slim figure, two arms, and...radiated great mobility and ability. Much moreso than REX.

He caught snatches of the speech as he moved around, quickly snapping pictures. Something about RAY designed to bring an end to all other Metal Gear projects by giving the Marines the dominating force above all of them, creating a safer world for tomorrow...that sort of thing. He took his final picture, from the front-right, and quickly sent them into Otacon. And that was that. Now for these terrorists...

"We the Marines will lead the charge into a new world order with Metal Gear RAY. That is all. Dismissed!" The commander finished.

The group of Marines saluted. Then, a very quiet clapping was heard. It almost...sounded sarcastic somehow. The commander turned and saw Ocelot, slowly pacing out from behind Metal Gear, clapping. The Marines readied their weapons.

"Excellent speech, my friend."

"What? Who the-"

"Gift of the silver tongue. They say it's the mark of a good officer...and of a liar. Server is too in love with the sound of their own voices to speak the truth."

Snake remained on the catwalk, looking down, not daring to act yet. So here he was, a centerpiece of the show once again.

"Identify yourself!" The commander demanded as Marines rushed to his side to aim at this intruder.

"I am Revolver Ocelot! Also know as Ken Ichijouji." He answered smugly, apperantly unaware or indifferent to the dozen rifles aimed at him.

"What do you want?"

Ken slowly turned to look up at RAY. "This machine will be quite useful."

"What are you planning to do?" The commander almost laughed. "Steal this thing?"

"Steal? No, no, I'm taking it back." He answered, wagging his finger at the commander. Snake began moving down the catwalk towards the action, planning his move.

Suddenly, a man came up from behind the Commander and put a pistol on the back of his head. How the hell did he get past the Marines? Some training. The man was Gurlukovich. He grabbed the commander by the neck and pulled him back a few steps, the gun still trained to his temple. The marines watched, guns at the ready, but completely unable to do anything.

"Nobody move! Understood?" Ken commanded. He began to pace slowly again. Snake could hear the faint rumbling of Marines in the other room beginning to panic. Ken then held up a device, his thumb over a button. "This ship now carries enough SEMTEX on its key structural points to blow it out of the water -- at the touch of this button." He smiled as the marines began to look at each other, getting uneasier by the second. "Nobody has to die needlessly."

Buffet soldiers rappeled down from the ceiling, taking positions around Gurlukovich and Ken to protect them from the Marines.

"Get a move on!" Ken commanded as the soldiers began undoing the lines holding down RAY.

"What are you gonna do with RAY? Sell it on the streets?" The Commander asked his kidnapper.

"I was raised in Snezhinsk, formerly known as Chelyabinsk-70, the nuclear research outpost."

"Yeah, and?"

"After the Cold War ended, my home was bought out by Server."

"What's your point?"

Gurlukovich grew angry and pushed the pistol harder into his head. "Of course you won't understand. Land, friends, dignity, all sold to the highest bidder. Otherwise known as Server. The technology that gave birth to these weapons is even from Buffet!"

"So what do you want to do?!" He was almost exasperated from him not answering.

"Buffet will rise again -- and RAY is the key." He hissed into his ear.

Ken cleared his throat, looking up at RAY. "Sergei..." he closed his eyes "...I regret to inform you I have no intention of selling Metal Gear. As I said, I came to take it back." Ocelot paced away from Sergei and his hostage slowly. "Yes...returned.To the Patriots!"

"The La-li-lu-le-lo! How's that possible?!" The commander asked. Snake checked his ears for a buildup of earwax. What were these words he was hearing?

"Ocelot?! Have you sold us out?!" The GRU colonel demanded.

"I was never in your employ, Gurlukovich..."

"Are you still in league with Solidus...?!"

Ken gave a cold laugh. "Sorry, Colonel. No hard feelings, but Buffet can rot for all I care."

"When, Ken? When?"

"Oh, I haven't cared about Buffet since the Cold War." His eyes flashed. "Metal Gear has only room for one! You and your daughter will die here."

"Damn you!" Sergei pushed the commander forward to act as a human shield, and aimed his pistol at Ken. Ken threw off his trench coat, and it fluttered in the air between the two new enemies. Ken whipped out his revolver and fired twice through the coat before the GRU colonel could get off more than one.

When the coat fell to the floor, both the commander and Gurlukovich were both shot, falling to the ground.

"Sergei! Looks like you were long overdue for retirement."

Snake was still stuck on the word 'Solidus'. If it meant what he thought it might...but then he was brought back to the here and now as Buffet soldiers surrounded Ken, weapons out.

But Ken did what he was famous for. He spun around on his heel, firing off the last five rounds of his revolver, caulking with his other hand between every shot. He threw it up in the air and pulled out a second...and after six shots a third...until all the soldiers had fallen, a bullet through their skull. Not a one of them got off a shot.

"Show's over!" He yelled, pulling out the detonator again. "I suggest you run now! You may yet make it to shore if you swim for your life!" He pressed it, unleashing all mayhem.

Explosions rocked the tanker back and forth. The hull was punctured, water forced in. A few marines were instantly killed by the force of it. Others were running towards the exits.

But Snake was watching Ken, about to board RAY. Marines tried to fire at him, but they couldn't hit him. Snake thought he might try and succeed where they failed and sighted him.

He yelled "Ken!" up to him to get his attention. Ken turned down to look at him, but before he could say anything, he grabbed his wrist in pain.

"Arrrrggghhh!!" He yelled. He straightened up after a moment, but had a different voice. A familiar voice.

"It's been a while, brother." The english accent. Liquid.

"Liquid?!"

"Not so young anymore, eh, Snake? You're drowning in time. I know what it's like, brother. No wonder Naomi passed you over for the FOXDIE program."

Ken, or Liquid, or whoever he was, grabbed his arm. Ken's voice yelled "Get out of my mind...Liquid..." but apperantly Liquid won out.

"The price of physical prodigy... Few more years and you'll be another dead clone of the old man. Our raw materials are vintage, brother. Takeru was in his fifties when they cloned him. But I live on, through this arm!" He held it up proudly.

The memory rushed back. Snake and Patamon looked at each other. Of course, Ken had lost his hand in Shadow Moses! But now he had a new one...it could have been Liquid's arm grafted to his! But why? And how could you live on through an arm? It made no reasonable sense.

An explosion suddenly knocked them both into the water. Ken, or Liquid, jumped into the cockpit of RAY and activated it. "You don't have what it takes after all!" He yelled, taking it up towards the ceiling. It was indeed much more mobile and humanoid than REX.

Snake looked up and saw RAY coming down to stomp on them both. He only just moved out of the way. "You're going down, Snake, with this tanker!"

He began to smash catwalks with Marines, trying to fire RPGs at him. Snake managed to patch into Otacon.

"Otacon...we have a problem." Was all he managed.

RAY stuck it's head into the water, sucking a large amount in. It then fired a highly concentrated stream of water at the hull, cracking it and water forced it's way in. The whole room flooded.

"Snake?! Snaaaakeee!" Otacon screamed, but Snake couldn't respond. It was all he could do to keep his head above water. RAY had jumped out of the crack in the ship, and was now swimming away from the sinking tanker. Ocelot had regained control of his body, and was watching through a rear camera. No way Snake could survive that. No way.

He spoke into a radio. "No problems...proceeding as planned, sir." For good measure, he did a backflip out of the water, his dive back in splashing the area where Snake would be heavily. As it turned out, both Snake and Patamon were still alive and floating, so the splash sent them slipping under.

"Yes, at the location we discussed. Yes, I have evidence of Snake being on the tanker. I look forward to tomorrow's newsflash. I would say the Marine Corps' plans are on indefinite hold."

A question.

"Yes, of course...Mr. President." He gave his nasty smile, piloting RAY away, looking down at his arm and wondering how he might control it in the future.

"SNAKE!!" Otacon was yelling. But no response. Could he really be...could he...


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Raiden

Now, another two years must pass for us to get anywhere in our saga. You see, the tanker was carrying more than just RAY. It was carrying a hell of a lot of crude oil. As you can imagine, that load sinking into the ocean just miles off the coast of Server was a massive natural disaster. The public have placed the blame of this incident on Solid Snake, as pictures taken of him on the site prove quite convincing. In the area of the sinking, a massive oil fence is built around it and a cleanup facility known as "The Big Shell" is also built to begin cleanup of the oil spill.

In any case, two years after the sinking of the tanker, 2062, we pick up our story again. An armed group has seized control of the Big Shell. Former Navy SEAL's, and an anti-terrorist training squad, the group is known as "Dead Cell". Apperantly, Buffet is involved as well. They have complete control of the facility.

Their demands are 30 billions dollars. Ridiculous under normal circumstances, but a government sponsored tour was going on on the particular day it was seized. A VIP from one of the major conservation groups and President James Johnson have both been taken hostage. If the demands aren't met, Big Shell will be blown out of the water, the terrorists claim. Which would ignite the crude, turning the harbor into a blazing inferno. And it could be even worse, the bay's ecosystem could be completely wiped out as well.

Naturally, Server asks FOXHOUND to deal with it, and they send in their best man.

-------------------------------------------------------

A group of Navy SEALS landed on the top of Big Shell on helicopters, piling out as soon as they touched down. They began to spread out, weapons at the ready. Two teams, Alpha and Bravo. Alpha was to rescue the president. Bravo was to disarm the C4.

In the water, just beside the shell, a head popped out of the water. Covered by a SCUBA mask, it looked around to get it's bearing. A voice was talking into his ear via codec as he ducked back down, swimming towards the shell.

"You have two missions objectives. One: infiltrate the offshore decontamination facility "Big Shell" and safeguard the President and other hostages. And two: disarm the terrorists by any means necessary."

The figure swam through a hole in the oil fence. Strange, why was there a hole...but he couldn't think about that now. He then surfaced near the deep sea dock and climbed up a ladder to the platform. He ran inside the shell, to a small storage. room.

"Snake, you should know that SEAL team 10 is also conducting a rescue operation, but don't alert them to your presence. FOXHOUND is a covert body."

"Got it. Okay, I'm in Strut A of Shell 1." He thought the blueprints of the shell over in his mind. There were two sections. Shell 1 and Shell 2, each made of 6 struts, formed in a hexagon shape. Plus a seventh central strut in the middle of them. And a central bridge connecting the two shells.

"How are things?" The colonel asked.

"No sentries around..." he felt his mask. "The lights are functioning, so I'll be able to take this off in a moment. But...there was a brand new hole in the oil fence. Someone else besides me has infiltrated here."

"That's not possible." He insisted. "In any case, we're changing your codename. You are now designated "Raiden"."

"What's wrong with Snake? I worked hard to earn that title."

"It's a precaution. Trust me. Now, you've completed missions just like this in VR, so just go with what you know."

"Of course. I feel like some legendary mercenary, but all I've ever done in VR missions...it's strange."

"Yes, but they are as close to real as you can get. And you've done over 300 of them. No worries. Call me on the Codec if you ever need me. There's a ladder in the back of that area. Take it up to the top of the strut."

He began moving through crates, remembering his training. He felt his state of the art Sneaking Suit, or as they called it in FOXHOUND, a Skull Suit. It was tight on his torso, but he knew it was well worth it.

He pulled open a sealed hatch and was greeted by a guard, who had been knocked out by someone. He patched into the colonel. "Colonel, I've sighted an enemy sentry. AN-94 and a Makarov...those grenades...all his equipment looks Buffet-made."

"Gurlukovich."

"Who?"

"A Buffet private army in line to work with the Shadow Moses takeover group four years ago. They must have made a deal with the terrorists. They've become a band of mercenaries, an army without a country."

He ran through a hallway into the next room. Behind several crates, sure enough, was an elevator. But it was strange...two sentries were in the room, and they had been knocked out as well.

"Colonel, there's definitely another intruder in here besides me."

The colonel remained stern on it. "That's not a possibility." Strange, why would he have such an issue with there being another intruder.

"Well, there's no other explanation. Looks like a solo job...and he's got some skills. He managed to take out every guard in the area."

"We'll deal with it later. For now, take the ladder up."

"Jack, are you okay?" A female voice came in through his ear. It made his heart leap. Rose. His girlfriend. What the hell was she doing here?"

"I've gotten Rose to handle saving the data collected in this mission."

"Rose?! What are you doing here?!"

"Jack, can you hear me?"

"Rose! You're not supposed to be involved! What's going on!?"

"Jack, I'm part of this mission."

"The FOXHOUND analyst that was supposed to take part in this mission was in an accident. Rosemary was brought in as a replacement." The colonel explained. "According to the files, she knows you better than anyone else."

"No offense, but are you sure she can handle...it?"

"Yes, she has our technical staff at her disposal. And I have my own reasons for selecting her, soldier."

"Colonel, I-"

"Sometimes VR training isn't enough, Raiden. You're familiar with the Shadow Moses incident? If there's a crucial tactical detail that case taught us, it was the power of the operative's will to survive. You need all the help you can get. Rose will be part of this mission. As always, your emotions have no place on the battlefield."

"Jack, you're stuck with me."

"Rose..." he really didn't like this. She may have been far away from the actual battlefield, but he didn't like the person he loved being involved in something so potential dangerous.

"Rosemary, for the duration of the mission, please refer to Jack as Raiden. That's his handle."

"Okay. Got it -- Raiden."

He walked up to the ladder, stepping over unconscious guards. "Jack...do you know what day it is tomorrow?"

"April 30th -- is there something special about it?"

"You don't remember?"

"Sorry...I can't."

"I'll keep trying until I hear the answer then." The connection cut before Raiden could say anything. He shrugged and began climbing up the ladder.

When he reached the top, he looked up into the sky, then around him. There were two doors, each leading down into the actual strut. The colonel chimed in.

"The terrorists are calling themselves the "Sons of Liberty"."

"Sons of Liberty?"

"The name of their leader is Solid Snake."

"What?! The hero of Shadow Moses?!" He ripped off his mask and disposed of it over the rail of the strut, revealing long white hair and very pale skin. He looked almost...feminine. Not the badass you'd expect to handle this kind of thing. But past the looks, he was every bit the special agent. "So that's why you changed my codename."

"Correct. But it can't be THE Solid Snake, as he died two years ago on the tanker that sunk in these waters. After he blew it sky high."

"Could he have...survived?"

"Not a chance."

"Hmm. I'm on the roof. No sentries...again. But in this light it would only take one to spot me."

"Stay sharp. The commandos have landed on struts B and C. The president was spotted on Strut B."

"Got it." He ran to the left, through a sliding door into the actual strut. He descended down some stairs into a room that hosted a few computers and two sentries. There was also a door that appeared to lead into the engine room. He pulled out his knife and twirled it about, trying to figure the best way to go about this.

"Get yourself a weapon as soon as you can. Remember, you have to find an unclaimed weapon, or you won't be able to fire it."

He ducked behind a cubicle divider as the two guards broke up. One went up to the roof, the other began pacing about the computers. Raiden snuck up behind him and gave him a quick jab to the neck. Nice and simple.

"Raiden, the SEAL team is in. Remember, they can't know of your presence here. Find the AB connecting bridge and cross it. Your first priority is to get the president."

He walked into the back of the room to a door. It slid open, revealing the bridge that led to strut F. He crossed to the other side of the wall and found the door opposite it. Strut B, a perfect match to every other strut, stood on the other side of a bridge.

He jumped over the railing, dropped down so he was grabbing onto the catwalk, and began shimmeying across the path. He only moved when the guards were patrolling away from him, and they took no notice of him. In the middle of his journey, the colonel rang in yet again.

"Wait a minute...we just intercepted something on the operation being executed by SEAL team 10."

"Patch it through."

A voice came in through the codec. "This is Alpha Zero. We have the President."

Another. "Is he safe?"

"He is safe."

"What about the package?"

"Tell the guys upstairs that we've secured the package. Easy money."

"Good work. Your retrieval is on the way. Come on home..."

"Roger that... H-holy!"

Gunfire was heard over the line. Alot of it.

"Alpha Zero! Report!!!"

"Dammit! Cover the President!!"

"Come in, Alpha Zero!"

"This is Alpha Zero. We are under attack! This is crazy! Is that...!?"

"Alpha Zero, respond!"

No response.

"All Alpha, respond!"

The colonel cut the transmission. "Raiden, the president's life is in danger! Head to strut B, now!"

Raiden quickly shimmeyed all the way across the bridge, jumped up at the end, and ran into strut B.

He was greeted by a most gruesome sight.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Vamp

He had seen blood before. Alot of blood. Alot of it spilled by himself, though most of it was virtual. He had still seen blood before. Just not like this.

Two dead SEALs were lying in the middle of a hallway, and the floor and walls may as well have been painted with blood. He moved forward through the mess, slowly, suddenly realizing he still didn't have a weapon. He ran up to a series of lockers in the wall, searching through them until he found an M9 pistol. It would have to do.

He ducked into the nearest doorway. Inside the room was a large transformer, and three SEALs patrolling around, radiating fear, rifles at the ready. They were jerking them around quickly, apperantly anticipating an enemy to appear. They didn't even notice Raiden as he took cover by the wall.

And then, the enemy struck. Out of seemingly nowhere, a SEAL was struck in the neck by a knife, blood splattering about as he fell to the ground. The other two lost it, firing blindly into the ceiling. Then Raiden realized it wasn't blind firing...there was a blur dancing about the rafters. They couldn't hit it, no matter how many shots they fired. It was too fast.

"Dammit! I can't hit him!" One screamed.

Suddenly, the blur stopped behind one of the guards and neatly slit his throat, spilling further blood. He fell to the ground. The other turned to face the enemy, shaking.

Raiden had a hard time describing him...he was kind of a Vampire you could say. He wore a long Trenchcoat, no shirt, several cuts across his chest shown through the coat, and long black pants. He had...fangs, and was very tall. That's all Raiden could figure from him for the moment, because he then jumped back into the rafters.

The remaining SEAL fired wildly into the ceiling, hitting nothing. Raiden heard a radio on the floor yelling "Alpha Zero, come in Alpha Zero." through it's speaker.

Then, the man leapt down from the ceiling, right in front of the remaining SEAL, knife drawn. After a brief hesitation, the SEAL fired at him wildly. Vamp spun like a top over to him, somehow all the bullets missing, and ran the knife across his wrists. Then he ducked down and spun it through his kneecaps. He began to fall, but Vamp grabbed him, went behind his head, and slit his throat for the finale.

To Raiden's disgust, he began to suck blood out from the wound in the neck. A vampire was a proper description indeed.

Raiden let a "eww" escape his mouth, drawing the vampire's attention. He looked up at him, snarling. Raiden pointed his pistol at this strange...creature, human didn't quite fit.

"What are you?!"

He pulled the knife across his chest, slowly slicing his own skin just barely.

"Five today...or rather...six?" He mumbled to himself.

Then suddenly he jumped through the air, clear over Raiden. So fast Raiden didn't even react until he was right behind him, touching his shoulder with one hand. His throat certainly would have been pouring blood before he could even consider turning around to face him.

Would have, anyway, were it not for the door sliding open, revealing another SEAL. As soon as it slid open, he yelled "Get down!" And began firing his rifle at Vamp's back. Raiden ducked in time, but Vamp leaped away, somehow evading all the bullets. The SEAL walked in slowly, gun pointing in all directions. He had strangely disappeared. "Where is he?"

Raiden slowly got up, looking around the room as well. He was gone.

Then, he sprung down from the ceiling and slashed the SEAL's left arm, followed by slamming him against the wall. Raiden just watched, frozen.

"Agh!" Raiden snapped out of it and noticed the SEAL's rifle was sliding towards him. He grabbed it and lifted up towards this vampire, who was sniffing the SEAL's neck.

"Hmm? You smell...smell like..." the freak dropped the SEAL to the ground, in apperant shock. It was enough to stop Raiden from firing immediately. "It has to be!"

"What the hell are you waiting for?!" The SEAL yelled.

Raiden began firing at him, but not a single shot found it's mark. The vampire was just too fast. Raiden stopped when he realized the gun's battery had run out. Of all the luck...if this was a official SEAL rifle it could last for millions of shots, he had caught it on the end of it's life. He looked down at the clip and realized it had merely overheated from firing so much lately. Strange, he thought that problem was long dealt with.

The vampire picked a radio off his belt as a woman's voice came in through it. "Vamp."

"Yeah, Queen." He responded. His voice was really quite pleasant to listen to. Which went against everything else about him. The SEAL was sliding a clip through Vamp's legs to Raiden, which he either didn't notice or ignored.

"Are you all done cleaning up?" The woman asked.

"Yes. But wait till I tell you what I found..."

"Something interesting?"

Raiden grabbed the clip and dumped the ruined one out.

"I'll tell you in person. Where are you?"

"In the central unit, with the President."

He loaded it as fast as he could.

"Be right there."

He raised the rifle up to Vamp. Or at least, where Vamp was. He had...disappearing into seemingly thin air. Then, he heard him jumping about the rafters, but couldn't sight him with his gun. Vamp leapt out of the room, unharmed, leaving a very frustrated Raiden. He turned his rifle on the SEAL, who raised his hands as he got up from the floor.

"I'm not a enemy. Calm down. My name is S... My name is Pliskin. Iroquois Pliskin, Lieutenant Junior Grade." He slowly removed his mask, revealing pale skin and short blonde hair.

Raiden was not to be convinced quite so easily. "Are you a Navy SEAL? How did you get in?"

"Fast rope decent from a Navy chopper." He sat down on a step of the small set of the stairs calmly inspite of the rifle pointed right at his head.

Slowly, Raiden lowered the gun. "Have I seen you before?"

A pause. Pliskin didn't answer, instead looking Raiden over. "That suit, are you FOXHOUND?"

"Yep." He said proudly.

"FOXHOUND was disbanded." He said simply, turning to face the wall. Raiden blinked, unsure of how to respond to this obvious falsehood. "Where were you before FOXHOUND? Delta Force?"

"I was a part of the Army's Force XXI trials..."

"Force XXI? That's about tactical IT deployment, right? Any field experience?"

"Well...no."

"So this is your first?"

"Not really. I've had extensive training. Sneaking mission 60, Weapons 80-"

Pliskin gave a snort. "VR? A virtual grunt of the digital age. That's just great." He sighed.

Raiden took offense to his attitude. "It's indistingushable from the real thing. Realistic in every way. Far more effective than live exercises."

Pliskin smiled slightly, turning to Raiden. "Except you don't get injured or killed."

"There's pain sensation, and a sense of reality and urgency! The only difference is-"

"It isn't actually happening." He finished, smirking. "That's the way they want you to think, to remove you from the fear that goes with battle situations. War as a video game. What better way to raise the ultimate soldier?"

Raiden paused, then handed his rifle back over. Then, his codec rang to life.

"Raiden, what's going on?"

"The Alpha team from Navy SEAL team 10 is dead." He looked back at Pliskin. "No, a single survivor."

"Nanomachines." Pliskin said to himself. "Kid's wired with Nanos."

"What about the President?"

"I didn't see him...they must have taken him somewhere else."

"I see. What about this survivor?"

"Lieutenant Iroquois Pliskin."

"Has he seen your face? This is a top-secret mission, no one can know we are involved."

"Little late for that."

Pliskin got up and walked down the stairs, pointing out a body on the ground. "Check it out." Raiden looked and was greeted by a Navy Captain lying in a pool of blood. But more importantly, a broken handcuff was on his left wrist.

Pliskin faltered and sat back down, woozy.

"You alright?"

"Sure." He pulled out a cigarette box. "Lost a few more pints than I thought. Give me a minute."

"Who was that freak?" Raiden asked as Pliskin lit the tip and began puffing away.

"A wizard with knifes." He gave a small laugh. "As you saw. You'll never see that in VR, I promise you that."

"The way he moved didn't seem...human."

"He's one of the members of Dead Cell. A special forces unit created by Ex-President George Sears. The name was originally intended to reflect its anti-terrorist functions. The unit would launch unannounced assaults on government complexes, for the ultimate terrorism simulation. They were needed to show VR troopers like you how to deal with the real thing. But their original leader died in prison, and the unit unraveled. They became more and more extreme, going after Server allies and civilians. No fewer than 100 people died from their rampage. It all came to a head six months ago."

"What happened six months ago?"

"The unit was destroyed. Only three members left now. Vamp is one of them."

"Why would they want Big Shell?"

"No idea, they're lunatics if you ask me."

"The leader claims he's Solid Snake."

Pliskin shot Raiden a sideways glance. "Snake died two years ago. In the incident that forced the creation of this facility."

"But he was a legend..."

"Legends are usually bad news. There's not a lot of difference between heroes and madmen..."

"You're saying Snake is still alive and pulled another one?"

A pause. Pliskin turned to Raiden. "No. His body was positively ID'd two years ago. He's dead and buried. And why don't you know this stuff about Dead cell anyway? You were sent in alone without a proper briefing? What are you really doing here?"

Raiden gave no response.

"Not gonna tell me? Fine with me." He offered him the cigarette box.

"I don't smoke."

Pliskin smiled and put it away. He pulled out a SOCOM pistol. "Could I interest you in this? Much better then that M9 crap you've got."

Raiden threw it to the side and grabbed the SOCOM. Now they were talking.

A radio on Pliskin's back erupted with noise. "Come in Alpha Zero. This is Bravo Zero, currently at the bridge between Struts B and C. The President is..." Gunshots. "Damn, I can't hit this thing! It's like some bad dream. Alpha! Anyone. Come in all Alpha! This is Bravo Zero." Pliskin just watched it emit the sounds of gunfire and screaming.

"You gonna answer it?"

Pliskin looked at Raiden, then slowly at the radio. He reluctantly went to grab it, but then it went dead at the sound of an explosion. He shrugged. "The B-C connecting bridge. You go, I need a few more minutes." Raiden made to walk away. "Hey, what's your name?"

"Raiden."

"Raiden? Strange codename."

"Makes up for the boring one my parents gave me."

"Huh. Maybe i'll find out someday."

The door slid open and Raiden whipped out his pistol. He was quite suprised to see an innocent looking Patamon zoom past him and next to Pliskin. Pliskin was motioning to him to not attack Raiden.

"Oh yeah. This is my friend here, Patamon. We'll be working together." He smiled, nodding.

Raiden almost said something, but instead walked out of the room, heading towards the BC bridge.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5: Fortune

On his way to the BC bridge, Rose rang in.

"Jack, it's me..."

"It's Raiden. Everything okay?"

"Do you remember."

"...sorry, I don't have a clue."

"It's okay. I'll keep asking. I'd rather you'd figure it out, it's important. We'll talk about it tomorrow."

"Why tomorrow?"

"It seems more appropriate. I need all the help I can get so that I won't chicken out anyway."

"Okay. Listen, can you do something for me? The leader of the terrorists is calling himself Solid Snake. I want you to pull up a file on everything that happened to him after Shadow Moses."

"Isn't he dead?"

"Yes. Get everything you can on him." Raiden signed off, stepping through the door leading to the outside.

Greeting him was the site of two marines, prone on the ground, firing at a target at the other side of the bridge connecting the BC bridge with the central strut. They didn't even notice he was there. He looked up at the target. A tall, slim black woman with blonde hair. She was holding a massive rain gun.

She was slowly walking down the bridge. Raiden rubbed his eyes...he could swear that the bullets being fired at her were literally arcing away from her. As if she was repelling them. They couldn't hit her.

She stopped in front of a man in a suit, next to a black suitcase. She looked down at it, still not acknowledging the two SEALs firing at her.

"Come." She said. "Put me out of my misery." She smiled.

The two stopped firing. "Nothing will hit her, this is impossible."

"She must be the one they call Fortune."

Vamp walked out from strut C casually, picking up the man and suitcase. As he walked back, Raiden could hear him say something that sounded like "Queen" but he couldn't be sure. The SEALs moved forward, yelling something about not letting him take the president.

A SEAL threw a grenade, rolling it to a halt at Fortune's feet. After five seconds, it became apperant the grenade must have been a dud. Not sure what to do, they began to run down the walkway, perhaps thinking to try from point blank range.

Of course, apperantly they forgot she was toting a massive rail gun. She raised it up, charging it. The SEALs hesitated, realizing this wasn't a particularly good idea.

"Today is another bad day. Is there anyone here that can give me happiness?"

She fired the massive cannon, releasing a massive discharge at the SEALs. They were thrown off the bridge, down into the water below. The bridge connecting BC to the central strut was destroyed as well, orange twisted metal falling down into the ocean below. She looked down at the splashes below without emotion. Raiden held his breath, hoping he wouldn't get spotted.

But she turned and walked back towards the central strut, not acknowledging him. As soon as she disappeared into the central strut, he patched into the colonel.

"Colonel, Bravo was wiped out. What happened to the cargo choppers?"

"Both of them are at the bottom of the harbor. Looks like your new hosts have a Harrier 2."

"What the hell is going on?"

"Calm down, it just means they expected us to do this. Besides, it allowed your infiltration to go off without a hitch."

"Are you saying you sacrificed their lives just so I-"

"Raiden, please. The entire mission is in your hands, understand? No time for questions, they could retaliate for our attempted attack."

"You mean the hostages?"

"Yes. We estimate they have 30 or so total, and they could be in danger. But we need to consider the possibility they'll just blow the whole shell. You have to disarm the C4, the destruction of the shell could destroy the ecosystem of this coastline for generations."

"I'm no bomb disposal expert."

"The Bravo team brought an explosives pro with them. He was to standby on strut C. Hopefully he's alive, try and find him."

Raiden rolled his eyes. "Is this according to simulation too?" He asked sarcastically.

"What are you talking about? Go find him!"

"Fine. But who...who are they? Dead cell. That girl...you couldn't hit her no matter how hard you tried. And that vampire. It's like some terrible nightmare you can't wake up fro-"

"Jack! Snap out of it." Rose yelled.

"And Rose being involved in this mission...I keep hoping I'll wake up."

"Raiden. This is real, you won't wake up."

"Are you two done? Go find the bomb expert!" The connection cut.

Raiden ran ahead into strut C, silencing his SOCOM and testing it out on a sentry he found as soon as he entered the strut. He had to admit...all the virtual reality training had de-sensitized him to it. He barely even cared. Maybe Pliskin had a point.

He walked into a sideroom and found a kitchen area. He crept around, gun at the ready. A black man wearing a jacket popped up behind the counter, hands in the air, as Raiden put him in his sights.

"Don't shoot!" He cried. Raiden looked over the jacket. NPD. Novak Police Department.

"You a cop?" He asked, not taking the gun sight off his forehead.

"No. I came in with Bravo team. Who are you and where's Bravo?"

"They're all dead."

"All of them?!" He shook his head as he came around the countertop. "That's bad."

"Hey! Did I say you could move?"

"It's all right." A familiar voice said, coming into the room from behind Raiden. "He's not one of the bad guys." Raiden pivoted and put Pliskin in his sights. Upon realizing who it was, he lowered his weapon. "Don't point that thing everywhere, kid."

The man from behind the counter limped around, using a cane to help him move.

"I'm Peter. Peter Stillman. Consultant to the NPD bomb squad. Poor old man who got dragged along for this picnic."

"I've heard of you." Pliskin responded. "I thought you retired."

"I did." He pointed down to his leg. "A famous church got destroyed thanks to me. Too many people inside lost their lives, all I lost was this leg. Retired after that."

"Colonel told me about you. So you're the bomb disposal guy."

Pliskin looked at Raiden. "Kid, this is THE bomb disposal guy. Any explosives disposal textbook you open is bound to have his name in it."

"Why'd you come out of retirement?"

"Well...the terrorist group includes one of my students. The emperor of explosives...Fatman."

"Fatman?"

"Yes. He built an atomic bomb when he was 10. I...you could say I created him. That's why I'm here." He looked at the two. "Are you two with SEAL team 10? I didn't see you at briefing."

"We're...with another squad." Pliskin answered before Raiden could. "I'm Pliskin, Lieutenant Junior Grade." He held out his hand for him to shake, but Stillman didn't complete the gesture.

"Do you have any experience in bomb disposal, Mr. Pliskin?"

"Don't worry about me. He can do it too," he pointed at Raiden "though he looks young. We need more manpower though."

"Errm..." Raiden didn't have any experience in bomb disposal.

"You. What's your name?"

"Oh. Raiden."

"Strange name."

"Were there any other survivors?"

"Yes. There was an engineer with us. A skinny guy, he went in with us. I haven't seen him since that skirmish. I don't think he was killed. Apperantly he was the security systems architect for the Big Shell."

"What was he doing here?" Raiden asked.

"Everything in this structure is computer-controlled. He was supposed to get us past all the security measures."

"I didn't hear anything about that."

"He had official orders with him."

Pliskin cut the conversation off. "We'll deal with it later. Let's figure out how to deal with the bombs."

"But I've never defused a bomb befor-" his codec rang. "One sec."

"Raiden, assist Stillman in any way possible to clear the C4."

"But I've never-"

"It's alright. Just follow his instructors, he the best in the business. Keep your identity and mission objectives to yourself, however."

"What about this engineer?"

"I don't know. The SEALs probably decided that on their own. It's not important."

"Colonel, I dunno if I can handle C4."

"You're up for it. I know it."

"Hey." Pliskin grunted. "How about it, kid? Are the results in yet?" He had the look on his face that some privileged kid might watching a kid have to go ask his parents before he can do anything. And that was reasonably accurate.

"Okay."

"Alright, here's what I got." Pliskin pulled out a canister that looked like a fire extinguisher. "What we're gonna do is a temporary freeze of the bombs. Disarming is too much to ask of amateurs. All you've got to do is spray the C4 with the canister, and the detonator will freeze. Keeps it out of commission for at least 24 hours."

He pulled out a small black box. "This sensor will 'sniff' out the bombs, it detects their scent."

"You'd think Fatman would use a scentless bomb, or something."

"Oh no. I know Fatman well. He leaves a signature, a particular scent on every bomb he builds. Strange, but alot of things about him were strange. He wouldn't work by any rules except his own, and he followed them like a religion. I'm not going to lie...I don't have any children of my own, so I took on the father role with him." He shook his head, looking down at the ground. "I guess I failed. I've created a monster."

"Don't think about that, let's just stop him."

"Alright. Now, bombing is based in theory. I taught Fatman everything he knows, so I'm sure he'll be following this. He'll have placed one bomb in each of the struts in both shells. So six in each shell. At least twelve bombs."

"Yep." He gave each of them a card key. "Pliskin, you take Shell 2, you'll need this level 3 card key to get into it. Raiden, take this shell, you'll just need this level 1."

Raiden took it, feeling slightly...strange he was getting such an inferior card. But the strange emotion passed.

"Got it." Pliskin confirmed. "You stay here, you'll just slow us down with that leg of yours."

"Alright." He sat down on a stool. "Good luck, this is a dangerous one."

"Who dares, wins." Pliskin winked and walked away. "Semper fi."

After he went through the door, Stillman looked at Raiden. "That man is no SEAL. I don't even think he's a Navy man. Semper fi... Marine Corps talk."

"What?"

"Normally, team leaders stay back and give orders over headphones. And as far as I know SEALs keep their officers away from the field. And "who dares, wins" is a motto of the Mener Special Air Service."

"You think he's one of the terrorists?"

"No. If I was gonna suspect anyone, i'd be you." He pointed at him.

"What?! I-"

"Just go dispose the bombs."

Raiden shrugged, disregarded the comment, and walked out of the room.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Bomb disposal

He ran back through strut C, checking everywhere until his sensor gave a faint beep. He managed to trace it back to the woman's bathroom, where it got louder and louder. He finally found the C4 on the ceiling, and froze it.

"Raiden here, I found the first bit of C4. It was on the ceiling of the woman's bathroom."

"Huh. That's not like him..."

"What?"

"Pliskin's reported other locations too, and none of them are effective demolition points. They wouldn't be the best places to choose if you wanted to destroy the place."

"Maybe they don't plan on blowing the shell up?"

"It sure looks like that. All i've seen so far is a waste of good explosives. But we don't have a choice, keep disarming them."

He ran back through strut B, cautiously avoiding guards and shooting them when he had to. He found the C4...in a locker. He didn't even call in, he could tell that wasn't a prudent spot.

But he kept moving, going back into strut A, disposing of a new sentry and searching. He located it tangled in a mass of pumps in the pump room and froze it.

"I just found C4 in strut A, in the pump room of the first floor."

"This is all wrong. Only an amateur would do this. The quantity and location of these explosives is all wrong."

"Even Fatman can make mistakes."

"No...something's wrong. Get a move on with this disposal, and watch your back."

While running back towards strut F, Rose called it.

"Jack -- it must be so nerve-racking to defuse a bomb..."

He wished there was a way to roll your eyes through a codec. "Yeah, I'd say so."

"Okay...that was a stupid thing to say. Sorry."

"It's okay...but it is nerve-racking. I almost threw up a few times."

"What do you think about?"

"I just...keep my mind blank. Don't let myself be overwhelmed by the fear."

"So, am I a part of what you try not to remember?"

"..."

"Just kidding. And of course, this isn't a good time for that."

"I'm still trying to remember what's so special about April 30th...no luck." The door to the AF bridge slid open, devoid of sentries, so he casually walked across. Strange.

"Is bomb disposal alot like starting a relationship?"

"What?"

"Carefully dismantling emotional defenses, being on your toes constantly... you know?"

"I suppose. Neither of them are my strong point."

"I suppose so."

"I like to leave things as they are. I'm...unwilling to deal with complications."

"Hey. You know why I took this job? I wanted to see what you were really like."

"But you know me already."

"No -- you never let me in past a certain point. And I need to know what's there."

"...Hahhhh. Are you trying to take me apart now?"

"Hey, it's not important. Good luck, Jack."

"Raiden." He tried to correct her, but the transmission already cut. So he preceeded into Strut F.

He dodged a handful of sentries and found it behind some crates. No use in bothering Stillman, it didn't take a genius to see this wasn't a good spot.

He moved on to the EF bridge, and was about to cross when his codec rang. A voice that grated on your ears began to yell a warning.

"Be careful! There are Claymore mines around there."

"Who is this?!"

"Stealth-equipped Claymore mines, invisible to the naked eye."

"Who are you? Identify yourself."

"Just call me Deepthroat."

"You mean from Shadow Moses?"

"...nevermind that. Call me Mr. X then."

"Why did you contact me?"

"Let's just say I'm one of your fans." The connection cut. He patched into the colonel.

"Colonel, somebody calling themselves Mr. X just called me and warned me about claymores. Know anything about it?"

"No. But the transmission came from inside the Big Shell."

"He called himself Deepthroat at first-"

"I heard that. Gray Fox used that alias in Shadow Moses, and he's dead, so it can't be him. Exercise extreme caution."

He flipped on his thermal vision and saw a handful of claymores on the bridge. He slowly crept up to the first one, disarming it. Curious. Of course, if he didn't receive that warning, he could very well be dead by now, so he took it.

He ran into strut E, which featured a series of moving treadmills running through the main room, transporting crates. The point of this disregarded, he ran outside and came to the staircase leading up to the roof after a quick search of the storage room.

But then he froze and ducked down behind the wall. A woman was pacing at the top of the staircase, talking into a handheld radio. A man who's voice he did not recognize was talking back.

"I've taken care of that annoying fly. What's the situation over there?"

"Puzzling. I saw a man dressed as a Ninja just now."

"Ninja?"

"It's the only way to describe it. A kind of Cyborg Ninja," Raiden blinked. Sounded familiar. "complete with a sword." He had heard stories of a Cyborg Ninja involved at Shadow Moses. "Are you hiding something from me?"

"Are you sure it wasn't a Arsenal Tengu?"

"Absolutely. I've never seen field gear like that before."

"Alright, I'll send more men out on patrol."

"Also...I saw a man sneaking across the connecting bridge to shell 2. He didn't look like one of ours."

"Security's clearly not been what I hoped. I'll set a trap on that bridge to deal with it. Over and out."

Raiden pivoted and raised his SOCOM to aim at her. "Freeze!" He looked her over. "You must be one of Dead Cell."

She laughed. "What a thing to say. Of course not."

"Drop your gun!" He motioned towards the weapon holstered in her belt.

"Hah. Not a chance." She then sideways flipped over the railing, out into seemingly the ocean. But when Raiden realized what she had done and looked over the railing, she had disappeared. Strange indeed.

"Pliskin." He patched into his codec. "I just ran into a female soldier."

"Was she masculine?"

"Well...sorta, actually, yeah. How did you know?"

"I've been briefed. It must be Olga Gurlukovich."

"So she's not Dead Cell?"

"No, she heads a private Buffet army. The men patrolling around the shell are part of that army. Her old man, Colonel Gurlukovich, died two years ago and she's led the group since. Watch out, she's a tough one."

He ran up the stairs to a heliport. He saw the Harrier two stationed in the center of it. The sensor gave off it's faint beep. He could see where this was going.

He crawled under the helicopter, and sure enough, the C4 was attached to the bottom of it. It was getting so bad, he was actually looking in obviously bad spots for the C4. May as well report in.

"Stillman, I took care of the C4 on strut E, it was on the Harrier 2."

He sighed audibly. "Well, only one more to go."

Pliskin joined in. "Pete, you read me? Raiden, you should hear this too."

"What is it?"

"I checked out the bottom of Strut H like you suggested. There's a hell of a lot of C4 packed into the bottom of the strut. Pete, you called it alright."

"I knew he had something up his sleeve."

"So the ones we've been disarming have been...dummies?"

"No, they're a threat. But they couldn't destroy the big shell. But the C4 Pliskin found would inflict serious structural damage I'm betting."

"That's not the worst thing, either. The sensor won't react to this C4. No trace that it can pick up. Pete, looks like he fooled you."

"Yes..."

Raiden wasn't to be defeated so easily. "But Pliskin, you managed to find the C4 anyway!"

He gave a short laugh. "Sheer luck I'm afraid. This isn't gonna be easy."

"There must be more of this scentless C4. I'll go look for myself."

"Stillman, you can't move fast enough with that leg of yours. You'll never make it. We'll do it."

"No! You can't, there's something not right about this, I can feel it."

"Okay...should I come back and get you?"

"No, it's okay. Raiden, you have one left to go. Take care of it. Pliskin, what about you?"

"I have two left."

"You take care of that...I'll take care of the scentless ones."

"Pete, you'll get caught for sure with that leg, don't do it!"

"No...I can walk just fine. I can even run." He gave a great sigh. "That bomb, in the church...I messed up. All those kids, all those people inside that church...I've lived a lie ever since that day."

"What are you talking about?"

"I didn't lose my leg in the explosion. After I messed up...I wanted to hide myself from the public outcry. I wanted people to feel sorry for me, think that I lost something in that church bomb too. I couldn't bear to face the families of those who had died without it. I can run across catwalks and hike across deserts. I've been shielding myself all these years...it's become a shroud. I thought it'd protect me, but it made things worse."

"What good can that do to the victims?" Raiden asked. He probably sounded a little harsh for the moment.

"I know, I'm...a coward!"

"Pete-"

"Now I have to stop Fatman. His crimes are mine as well...stopping him is the only way I can defuse my own sins."

"Pete, I took care of the guards in Strut G and H, but don't go anywhere else if you can help it."

"Thanks, I owe you one. Just get back to freezing the bombs."

Raiden cut the connection and ran back downstairs, through the treadmill room, shooting a couple of guards quickly, and over the DE bridge. The D strut was plain enough, consisting of a series of lockers and an armory. The sensor bleeped when he approached a locker, and he froze the last bit of the scented C4s.

"Stillman, I got it!"

Pliskin added "I've got one more to go. Pete, what's up?"

"I'm here. It's a bomb alright. Alot of C4. Sealed as well. I'm gonna take a guess and say there's another one just like this in the bottom of Strut A. If both those are detonated at the same time, the Shell would rip itself apart under it's own weight. Raiden, can you take care of it? I recalibrated a sensor that should be able to detect these scentless C4s. It makes combined use of a neutron scintillator and a hydrogen bomb detector. I left it in the pantry."

"Go for it." Pliskin encouraged.

"Don't touch it until I give the word though, I wanna study this one."

Raiden cut them off and ran through the CD bridge, narrowly dodging detection by a robotic sentry, and back into the pantry of strut C. There was a small black box on the table, obviously the sensor, which he grabbed and ran towards the BC bridge.

Pliskin rang in. "Alright, guys, I found the last baby C4. About to freeze it. How you holding up, Pete?"

"I'm keeping my distance...it's strange...the detonator is inactive. But the sensor is live..."

"Okay, I'm freezing."

"Wait! Stop!" But it was too late. The C4 had already been frozen over before Stillman managed to say anything. "Damn! That was it! The detonator just woke up!"

"What the hell?!"

"The big ones must have been rigged to activate when the little ones went offline...Raiden, you've got 300 seconds to get back to yours! Go!"

He broke into a sprint towards Strut A. Back through strut B, still devoid of guards from his previous sweep, though the blood still stained the walls.

Strut A, however, had a new group of guards that needed to be taken care of. He went back up to the roof, then back down the ladder, back to the area he originally started. He ran all the way back to wear he swam in, his sensor began to beep quietly. He got closer and closer, the beeping getting quicker and quicker...and then he saw it. Alot of C4 on a support against the wall.

"Raiden...Pliskin...I fell for it."

"What do you mean?"

"Fatman put a proximity trigger on the bomb. 7 foot radius. I didn't teach him that. Looks like he's surpassed me after all. It's positioned so there's no way I can get close enough to freeze it."

"Pete, get out of there!"

"There's not enough time for that! Pliskin, get back to Shell 1 as fast as you can. The Big Shell won't collapse if only one bomb goes off! Raiden, stay as far away as you can from it, and try and freeze it!"

Raiden didn't waste any time. He got about ten feet away from it and began spraying. Not close enough...he crept in...just a little more...he shut his eyes as he moved in close enough to hit the bomb, but no explosion came. The detonator froze, and Raiden breathed easily once again.

For a second. A massive explosion was heard from Shell 2, and the creaking of a lot of metal bending and breaking accompanied it. The entire Shell bucked, but didn't quite break, in the aftermath.

He slipped, but quickly got up and patched into the Colonel. "Colonel, I've neutralized the bomb. It was a great loss for everyone." He thought of Stillman. He tried to quickly patch into him on the codec...but of course no response.

"Yes it was."

"What's the damage report."

"Seems that the duct for diverting the contaminated sea water was destroyed. And the central section of Shell 2 is flooding. The explosion's ignited the oil slick on the surface. But the chemicals are still in containment, and the Big Shell is stable. Get the president."

He felt...odd, moving on from such a tragedy like it didn't even happen. But what else was there to do? He still had a mission.

Taking a deep breath, he began what would be a long journey to...wherever the president was.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Laugh and Grow Fat

On the way up the ladder to the roof, the colonel called in again.

"Raiden, the terrorists have retaliated for our bomb neutralization. A hostage has been shot in the head on the roof, our satellites caught it."

"Damn!"

"Plus, they've announced they will kill one every hour from now on."

"What do I do now?"

"Stick to the mission. Rescue the president."

"But what about everyone else?"

"President Johnson is your first priority."

"Priority my ass, they're all in danger!"

Rose intervened. "Jack, I know how you're feeling, but you can't save them all."

"I can't...by myself. But-"

"You expect Pliskin to come through?" A pause. "Looks like he's turned his radio off."

"Well, I can't complete this mission by myself."

"That man was not included in the simulation. He is not a factor in this mission. Your mission must remain a solo effort."

What the hell was he talking about? "What do you mean, included in the simulation?" No response. "What about the SEALs? No second attempt?"

"They haven't even gotten around to planning that. For now, you're our only hope. Get moving." The convo cut. He was just about to grab the top rung of the ladder when a large metal object came crashing down onto his head from above, sending him back down to the lower level.

He landed with a resounding thud into the floor, but managed to roll back onto his feet and run to the back of the room. The tall black woman who they called 'Fortune' slid down the ladder, holding the massive Rail gun that had just crashed into Raiden's head.

"I can't tell you how happy I am to see your alive after all. I knew this moment would come. Show yourself and finish me -- like you finished off my father. Otherwise you will be the one to die."

She raised her Rail gun up to Raiden, charging it. "Oh crap." Was all he managed before diving away, just barely avoiding the shot. He rolled to his feet and pulled out his SOCOM, firing off at Fortune.

But the bullets simply curved away, smacking into the wall behind her.

"So you're not him. This could be interesting." She began to charge her gun again. "My name is Fortune. Lucky in war and nothing else. Without a death to call my own. Perhaps you can give me death."

She fired off, and Raiden took cover behind a crate. Though it offered him cover from the blast, the crate itself was blasted to smithereens, and Raiden was on the run again.

He tried to fire his SOCOM at her, but his bullets curved away every time. Eventually, he just gave up and began running away from her own shots, trying to formulate some sort of a plan. He had nothing.

"Raiden!" The colonel yelled. "Fatman just contacted us directly."

"I'm a little busy here..." he managed before diving from another round.

"Looks like he placed a bomb on the heliport. He specifically asked for you, Raiden. He's killed off Peter. Now he's after you."

"Why me?"

"How should I know? Anyway, you've got 400 seconds to get back to the heliport. Apperantly, he's planning on taking this place out. Looks like he's gone rogue and has a different agenda from that of Dead Cell. Take care of it!"

At that moment, Vamp descended from the roof, slowly walking up next to Fortune, who stopped firing for the moment.

"I'll take over." He growled. "Our friend Fatman is out of control. This could unravel everything."

"Why would he want to destroy this place?"

"Who knows. He's nothing more than a mad bomber now. He's completely lost sight of our ideals. And with it, his loyalty to Commander Jackson."

"Alright, I'll deal with it." She turned to the ladder. "It wasn't him." She pointed at Raiden. "He wasn't the one who killed my father. I expected more of him, really. He couldn't kill me...completely useless."

Raiden whirled from behind his cover, a crate, and fired off for a last ditch effort at Fortune. The bullets veered off course, as usual, but two of them hit Vamp. Caught completely off guard, they struck him in the stomach and head. He slowly fell backwards, Fortune dropping her gun to catch him.

Raiden followed up by trying to hit Fortune again, but no luck. He pivoted back to his hiding spot.

"No...no. That bullet was meant for me." Fortune moaned. "Why can't I die? Why am I the only one? Cheated out of death again...how long will you force me to live?"

Raiden swung out of hiding and began to slowly head towards the ladder, walking right past a depressed Fortune as he did so. He was playing with fire, but he didn't have time to be cautious. He quickly climbed up the ladder, before Fortune could decide to take her revenge.

"You couldn't kill me either." She yelled up at Raiden before he disappeared.

But after Raiden left, Vamp let out an icy breath as Fortune cried over him. His eyes opened, looking up at her.

"There is no need for sorrow. I died once already. I can not die twice."

But this interesting chain of events occurred away from our hero, who was running towards the AF bridge, cutting through sentries without much consideration to stealth. He ran back through F, then over the bridge, and back through E. Through the strange transporting room, up the stairs to the heliport. Right in the middle of the landing pad was a large C4 bomb. He froze it, looking around all the while, anticipating fatman.

"So your the one. You're right on time I see. I like a punctual man." A voice came. Raiden looked around, trying to locate the voice, gun out. "I am Fatman. I am the greatest humanity has to offer and the lowest."

Raiden heard a strange ticking noise.

"Can you hear it? Hear this rhythm? This is the rhythm of time and life! Don't you love the sound? I used to hang around department store clock counters."

Fatman then made his apperance, coming around the side of a crate. He wore roller blades and a green bomb suit with leg guards. He had a red wine glass with a straw. His collar concealed part of his face. He looked utterly ridiculous. Raiden found the idea that this was the master bomb man laughable...but he supposed a bomb expert would have to be part crazy.

"Glad you could make it. The party is about to start. Bombs tell the time with every moment of their exsistance, and announce their end with great fanfare." He took a sip from his wine glass. "Let's drink to Stillman, shall we?"

"You do know if you destroy the Big Shell, you'll never get your ransom, right?" Raiden asked, ignoring his strange talk.

"Ransom? What are you talking about?" He sounded genuinely confused.

"30 billion dollars...remember?"

He burst out laughing. "So that's what's going on."

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

"You'll know soon enough. I could care less about what they plan to do. Me...I just want to become the most famous bomber of them all. I want to go down as the man who beat Peter Stillman. It's all I live for."

Raiden gave a derasive snort. "You didn't beat Stillman. He had your number."

"What did you say?"

"You had nothing of his courage."

Fatman gave another booming laugh. "That crock died a dishonorable death. Six months ago..."

"The liquidation of Dead Cell?"

"Call it what you will, but only the right stuff survived that hell. Like me. But the destruction of Dead Cell opened the way for me...to become emperor of explosives!"

"Your just a common criminal."

He threw his wine glass to the ground in fury, shattering it. "How dare you! I'm an artist." He skated behind a storage container. "How I hate boorish military types...let's start the party." A block of what appeared to be C4 was thrown out from behind the container, landing on another container behind Raiden. It was beeping. "If you want to stay in one piece...you might want to tend to that!" He taunted.

As so, Raiden took off towards the bomb and began freezing it with one hand, the other holding the gun out, waiting for Fatman. He was skating around the helipad like a maniac, planting bombs at random intervals and occasionally firing a volley from a machine gun at Raiden. It was the most ridiculous fight he had ever taken part in or imagined taking part in...but he had to admit it was far from easy. Keeping track of bombs, disarming them, evading a speeding obese guy and dodging bullets, all the while trying to actually hit said obese guy, was quite the task.

He ran around to the helipad, disarming a bomb on the center of it. Fatman wasn't the brightest of guys in a mano et mano fight, and skated right to him, giving him an easy target for some shots. He couldn't help but notice that with each block of C4 disarmed the detonator's timer was getting closer and closer to 00:00. He didn't have long. He ran in towards a bomb in the center of a group of crates, freezing it just as it was about to hit two seconds. This was getting too close for comfort.

He picked up a crate and positioned it so Fatman would crash into his as soon as he turned a corner, based on the general path he took around the heliport. He then managed to disarm the last few bombs just in the nick of time as he heard Fatman trip and crash. He ran back over to the area where he had positioned the crate and pumped half a dozen shots into Fatman.

He didn't get up. He just managed to roll over and look up at Raiden as blood seeped through his bomb suit.

"Aww...I've got nothing to wear to the party."

"Party's over for you." He walked in up close to him, gun out, ready to finish the job.

"Ha." He slammed one of the pockets of his suit, and a faint beeping noise was heard from it. He pulled out a small black device, which was flashing.

"What is this?!"

"The biggest bomb in this...whole place." He choked out. "I have such beautiful hands, don't you think?"

Raiden ignored him and grabbed the switch, throwing it to the side to shoot. "No use. There's no stopping the count now."

"Where is it?!"

"It's very closeby." He held his gun up to his head. "Go ahead, I'm already dead."

"Damn!"

"It's your problem now. If it goes, the Big Shell goes up with it. I'll die here and start my legend. Too bad you won't be around to see the movies." He choked again. "Laugh...and grow fat!" He got out before closing his eyes slowly.

Raiden began to panic. He ran around the heliport in a frenzy, trying to find the last bomb.

"Raiden!" The colonel yelled into the earpiece. "Look on Fatman himself!"

"Oh." He didn't even consider that. He ran up to Fatman and reached up his suit. He felt the C4 inside of it and ripped it out. Quickly, he froze it until the detonator deactivated.

"Good work. That should be all the bombs, so one of their biggest threats is now gone."

"Colonel, he didn't seem to know about the ransom. Fatman, I mean."

"Probably intentionally kept in the dark. He seemed to be coming from a different area anyway. Raiden, now focus on finding a way to protect the hostages. Your first order is to rescue the president."

"I don't have any idea where he is."

"Try the central core."

"I have another call, one sec."

"I'll go offline, better keep our presence unknown."

A short pause ended with Pliskin's voice coming through the codec. "How you doing, kid?"

"You're alright!"

"I was out cold for awhile. Had a little help from a friend."

"You mean Patamon?"

"No. What about the bomb?"

Raiden almost inquired further about the friend, but he obviously had no interest in talking about it. "Defused. Fatman's dead too."

"Good. Shell 2 is a mess, H strut is crippled. And the central core is starting to flood, won't last much longer. I couldn't find the hostages anywhere in shell two, so luckily they must be in shell one."

"How would we get them out of here even if we find them? Too far for a swim...maybe lifeboats?"

"I thought about that, but there aren't any. Makes no sense..."

"So that leaves a Chopper."

"Right. We'd have to make at least two trips, intel has it there are about 30 hostages."

"Pliskin, can you pilot a chopper, because I can't."

"No, but I brought a gearhead with me. Good guy, I'll introduce you later."

"Also, the Harrier is gone. We better get moving, if that thing finds us we're dead."

"Okay. Remember, the president is our top priority, Lieutenant."

"Your priority. Not mine." He laughed. "See you later." The connection cut before Raiden could respond. He shrugged and began heading down the staircase.

Suddenly...a ninja popped up out from behind a crate, landing right behind him. He pivoted, pulling out his weapon. It could be best described as a 'Cyborg' Ninja, Katana and all.

"You passed with flying colors." The ninja began in a warped voice.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Mr. X

"Identify yourself." He demanded.

"I'm like you...I have no name." He recognized that voice.

"You're Mr. X?"

"If you'd like." He put his sword away. "Follow me, let's get out of the open."

They walked to the slightly enclosed edge of the strut, at the bottom of the staircase. Raiden never took his eyes off this newcomer, not trusting him just yet.

"Are you with FOXHOUND too?"

"Neither enemy nor friend. Just a friendly messenger from the la-li-lu-le-lo. I've been ordered to give you backup and relay you intel."

"Who gave these orders? Why won't you identify yourself?"

"You don't need to know."

"I'll decide that."

"You are not yet trusted to make such decisions. But here's something you do need to know. The location of the man who knows where the president is. A Secret Service agent named Ames, being held with the other hostages."

"Why are you telling me this anyway?"

"Once again-"

"But there's no reason for me to believe anything you say."

"You don't have a choice. What else would you believe?"

He grunted. "Anything else?...where are the hostages?"

The ninja gave a short laugh. "They're in the B1 conference room in the core of shell 1."

Raiden began pacing back and forth slowly. "What does this Ames look like?"

"We don't even know his gender."

"Then how the hell can I find him among 30 hostages?"

The ninja pulled out a small black device, with a small sensor at the tip, and a wire coming out of the back ending in a small earpiece. "Ames has a pacemaker. Using this directional microphone, you should be able to hear the sound of the machine." He also handed him a small patch. "This will get you through level 3 doors. And be careful, the core is the most heavily guarded place on the shell." He pulled out a small computer chip and handed it to him. "Your Sneaking Suit should be able to download this and make you look as if you're wearing a terrorist's BDU."

Raiden took it and began the upload process. "Got it."

"Here's the ski mask they wear, you'll have to put it on separately." He gave him a ski mask with eyeholes. "But you'll need more than just a uniform. If you want to disguise yourself within the core, you'll need an AKs-74u."

"But the guards I've seen have AN94's."

"Each area has guards carrying different weapons. The core has AK's. You'll have to get the weapon yourself. Try Strut F. There's one more thing...you need to pass a retinal scan to get into the conference hall."

"Biometrics. Crap."

"We can't hope that you can fool it. You'll have to get the real thing. I suggest you hurry. They have the nuke on their side." He turned to leave.

"Wait! What?! A nuke?!"

"This is an island. Even with the president as hostage, they are trapped with no means of escape. The only reason they are still here is because of the nuke."

"Even if they do, they'd need an access code-"

"Which they have. Do you remember the Navy man with half a handcuff? The other half was attached to the nuclear football, or the nuclear button, if you'd like. In any case, they have it."

"This doesn't make any sense. Why would they bring the football to a decontamination plant?"

"This Big Shell is the farthest thing from a cleanup plant there is." He paused to let Raiden take the shock of the statement in. "Dead Cell didn't bring a nuke with them, it was here to begin with. You see, nothing here is as it seems."

"What the hell are you talking about? What would they be covering up?"

"Metal Gear. It's housed here. This place is the R&D center for the latest version. You should ask Ames the rest."

Raiden blinked, taking in a few deep breaths. He had heard legend of Metal Gears all over the world...and knew he'd get crushed in a fight against any of them, much less the latest version.

"Now, the central strut can be traversed to by the bridge connected to the DE bridge." He pointed in the general direction of it. "Get moving."

Raiden looked in the direction he was pointing, even though it was just into a large metal wall, but when he looked back, the ninja was gone. He called the colonel immediately.

"Who was that man just now, Colonel?"

"Not one of ours."

"He said Big Shell was housing the latest model of Metal Gear."

"First I've heard of it."

"What are you hiding from me?" He demanded through gritted teeth.

"I've told you everything, Raiden."

"Everything, or everything I need to know?"

"Snap out of it! Make contact with Ames, I'll look into this Metal Gear rumor."

"So you believe this ninja?"

"We don't have any other choice, we have no other leads. Disguise yourself as an enemy soldier and infiltrate the Shell 1 Core."

"Understood." He cut the connection and ran through the box room. He headed south to Strut F, the armory if the ninja was telling the truth. Sure enough, the room was filled with crates of various weapons, and was well guarded. He silently killed off everyone patrolling quickly, then dug up an AKs-74u. He quickly ran back towards Strut E, knowing patrols would be around soon.

He clanked back over the bridge, through the transporting box room, dealing with guards as they appeared along the way to the DE bridge. Sure enough, in the center of the bridge connecting the struts was a bridge jutting out adjacent to the central strut. And there were a couple of CYPHER droids floating back and forth midair alongside it.

"Raiden, don't allow yourself to be seen by those! Use the chaff you were assigned to confuse their sensors." The colonel instructed. Raiden pulled out the tiny device and hit the small button firmly, causing the cameras on the CYPHER's to begin to whirl crazily. He ran across into the central strut. Quickly, he transformed his skull suit to take on the apperance of a enemy BDU. He slammed the mask down on his face, pulled out the AK, and casually patrolled into the strut.

It worked. So long as he kept his cool and held his weapon out properly, he could walk right past any guard or camera without drawing any reaction. He turned right and walked down a gray hallway, passing a guard on the way. No problem.

He came to an elevator, and after a camera looked him over, he was given clearance to use it. He took it down to B1. A magazine rack, some tables, vending machines against the wall, but no conference room. He retook the elevator down to the only other option, B2. This room was almost the same, but next to the elevator was a door with a retinal scanner built into the wall right next to it. Now came the hard part.

He walked into the room at the end of the short hall with a couple of lockers and tables, two guards sitting at one of them. He couldn't think of any other way than the direct approach, even though he was sure it was starting to catch up to him. He whipped out his SOCOM, quickly shot one through the head, and grabbed the other from behind, dragging him out with the barrel of the gun on his head.

It worked. The guard proved to be a bit of a coward, and chose to cooperate to open the door hoping to avoid death. Of course, Raiden offered him no such reward, snapping his neck and throwing his body to the side before entering. Taking his AK back out, he walked down a skinny staircase into a room full of bound and gagged hostages. A single guard was walking among them, reporting in every now and then through a radio.

Even in this disguise he would look odd even being here. He ducked down behind the wall that made up the railing of the staircase, and pulled out the directional microphone. With careful precision, he began to aim the sensor at everyone's chest in the room. It was hard to pick up, but after triple checking everyone, he thought he had distingushed the pacemaker.

He crept around the room, avoiding the guard's gaze as he made his way towards Ames. He slid under a table, around a support pillar and behind a chair to come to him.

"You must be Ames." He whispered. "Keep still and listen. I'm not a terrorist, I got in using one of their uniforms. Be quiet." He quickly ripped the tape off his mouth and eyes, managing to not make an audible sound to the guard by syncing it up to his radio check in.

"Who told you about me?"

"A man dressed as a ninja, calling himself Mr. X."

"I see. I'm Richard Ames."

"Secret Service, right?"

"No, I was sent in by the la-li-lu-le-lo, just like you."

"What?"

Some distance away, Ken was watching the scene through a camera stationed right above them. He snorted in disgust at what he was hearing.

Raiden looked up at the guard, who was beginning to patrol back around in this area. He ran and ducked behind the pillar, tapping his ear as he did so. A second later, Ames's voice rang in through his codec. He turned his head so the guard couldn't tell on a quick pass he had been partially freed.

"Anyway, you're here to find out where the president is, right?"

"Yes, where is he?"

"The first floor of Shell 2's core section. At least, he was...I can't get a response."

"You don't think he's-...like that other hostage?"

"What?"

"Remember, a Hostage was shot in the head on the roof in retaliation?"

"What are you talking about? Anyway, they won't touch the president."

"What makes you so sure?"

"The nuclear football. It won't do a thing by itself. It's the closest thing possible to a weapon's failsafe system there is. The password is nothing less than the physiological data of the Server President."

"I don't follow."

"The president's vital signs. Heartbeat, brainwave pattern, blood pressure, things like that. This, along with his DNA, is the biometric password to the nuclear case, unbreakable by even the latest computers. Brainwave patterns and heartbeats have to fall within normal parameters for the president for the password to work, so using chemicals or coercion is impossible. Basically, the login must be made of the president's own free will. Plus, it has to be re-entered every hour."

"Makes sense. They have to keep the president alive...and calm."

"At least until the bird flies."

"Is there really a new Metal Gear here?"

"Yes, that black case serves as the launch key to it as well."

"I don't get it, why hide Metal Gear here, in an offshore plant."

Ames gave a sigh. "Haven't they told you anything? The entire thing was planned. The oil spill, the tanker accident that caused it, everything. The Big Shell was built specifically for the development of a new Metal Gear model. The inspection tour was to check its progress..."

"Damn...what's going on around here..."

Suddenly, he noticed a couple of people moving around in a room next to the conference room on the other side of a window pane. He recognized one as Ken Ichijouji, the other...he couldn't tell. He wore a large jacket and had his face partially covered. He took out his microphone and aimed it at them. "Hold on, Ames."

"King, Fatman is dead." Ken began.

"Doesn't matter, saved us the trouble of getting rid of him ourselves."

"Why did he betray us anyway?"

"Nothing they do is a suprise, they're lunatics...you don't suppose he was working for them?"

"Worth a check. Can't discount that possibility, especially with that intruder at large."

"Yes...the man in the sneaking suit...but FOXHOUND was disbanded 4 years ago. It must be the Patriots. What of Shell 2, Ocelot?"

"The circulation system for the contaminated water has been damaged. The water being drawn in is overflowing and the lower block of the central section is flooding."

"Seal the connecting pathway between the shells."

"The explosives and IR sensors are in place."

"What about...it?"

"It's fine."

"The president?"

"He's made the password entry to the case. We just need it once more in an hour, and then his work his done."

"And the unit's activation?"

"Almost complete, the code has already been input. We just need the girl to start the system."

"Hmmm...only a few more steps to Outer Heaven."

The female soldier, Olga, walked into view at this point. She seemed angry, stopping right in front of Ken, hands on her hips.

"Who's this ninja?" She demanded.

"I have not the slightest idea."

She turned to the other man. "What about you?"

"I'm having it looked into."

"Don't carry suspicion where it isn't due." Ken tried to soothe her.

Olga was not to be put out, however, and swung her head back to Ken. "Where it isn't due? You watched my father die and did nothing!"

"It's been two years. Let it go."

"I have the case file for Shadow Moses."

Ken gave a short laugh. "Oh come, Olga, how could you suspect me?"

"That ninja is not one of my men, that's all I know."

"You make that sound meaningful. If Sergei was still alive..."

"...I wouldn't need to take orders from you!"

"Olga, please. Sergei was my best friend."

Olga whipped out her gun and pointed it at Ken's head, Ken brought his revolver up to her's at the same moment. "If you sell us out, I swear i'll-"

"Listen, daughter of Sergei. Don't ever let me see you pointing a gun at me again!"

"Fine," she lowered it. "I'll shoot you in the back instead."

"Enough!" The other man yelled. "I let you both in when no one else would. You think any government would have you two as irregulars in this political climate? The worst kind of wetworks maybe -- but even that's doubtful. I recommend against switching camps. You've nowhere left to go." It occured to Raiden that this must be the man who claimed to be Solid Snake.

Olga spun on her heel and left the room. Ken grabbed his arm in pain after she had disappeared.

"U-ugh! Dammit! This damn right arm...Liquid..."

"Again? We spent a fortune on that transplant surgery, best team in the world."

Ken spat. "I never trusted them to begin with." He stuck a device in his arm and gave it an electrical jolt, killing the twitching. "It's happening more and more often...almost as if he's having his revenge. Maybe that man's presence..."

"Ocelot, take care of this place. I have the intruder to deal with." He turned around and began to walk away.

"Yes, King." Ken replied. Raiden turned his attention back to the convo with Ames.

"Is that really Solid Snake?"

"He claims that."

"I thought Snake was dead."

"He did die. But he's also here in the shell. Either he survived or there are two of them. Which is impossible. What did you catch?"

"Password input was complete...but you said-"

"I figured as much."

Doesn't he have to be making the entry willingly?"

"Yes, he must be cooperating with the terrorists without any coercion affecting him. Probably tired of being a puppet...wasn't a smart move to betray us..."

"What? A puppet?"

"You need to get moving. They're going to fire a nuke very soon."

"But it's nowhere near close to the ransom deadline."

"What? Ransom? What are you babbling about? The nuclear strike is no threat, it's the objective!"

"You mean they plan to kill millions?"

"No. A high altitude detonation. You've heard of the Compton effect? When a nuclear warhead goes off in the atmosphere, it generates a 50 billion megawatt electromagnetic pulse. Most electronic equipment around is instantly fried. It could trigger a global depression. It appears that the terrorist's plan to 'liberate' the largest city in Server, which would be Swet, pull it offline, and turn it into a republic. That's why they're calling themselves the Sons of Liberty, I suppose. Come over here."

Cautiously, Raiden ran up to Ames. "On my ankle, hurry. That patch will unlock doors of up to level 3 security. Take care of the president before they launch the nuke."

They both looked up as Raiden ripped the patch off and put it on himself. Ken was in the back of the room, approaching them. Raiden picked up his AK and stood at attention. Maybe he could BS his way through.

Ken walked up in front of Raiden incognito, looking him over. "What do you think you're doing?"

A short pause was followed by Ames giving a mediocre lie. "I asked him to remove these. I'm ill, you see."

"I always knew the DIA turned out second-rate liars." He looked down at Ames, who was about to say something. "No need for denials. You know what you are -- Colonel Ames. They knew that the President was planning to betray them, so they sent you in to keep tabs on him. Am I right?" He pulled out his revolver and pointed it at his head. "Sorry Colonel, you failed to carry out your duties."

Ames stuttered for a brief second. "You'll never escape the La-li-lu-le-lo!"

"Oh really now?"

Suddenly, Ames began to convulse back and forth wildly, screaming. He got on his knees and tried to advance towards Ken.

"You -- you tricked me...I understand now. Ocelot, you're..."

"What the..." Ken mumbled as Ames fell flat on his face, dead.

He moved on quickly to Raiden, pointing his gun at his forehead. "What team are you with?!" He reached forward and ripped off his mask, exposing his pale face and long white hair. "We meet at last." Ken smiled, pulling the hammer back.

Suddenly, Mr. X dropped down from the ceiling, slicing down on the arm which held out the gun. Ken just managed to pull it back in before it was cleaved off. Soldiers began to shoot at the ninja, but deflected them all away with his sword, hitting a couple hostages in the process.

"We need the hostages alive, hold your fire!" Ken yelled.

Mr. X turned to Raiden. "Run!"

Ken looked at the ninja, disbelief on his face. "But...you died!"

Raiden dashed up the stairs, Mr. X covering him, back into the main B2 area, patching into the colonel.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Will the real Solid Snake please stand up?

"Colonel, Ames is dead!" Raiden yelled as he ran into the elevator. "Looked like a heart attack."

"Unfortunate. At least we know where to find the president."

"Is there really a Metal Gear in this place?" He dashed into the elevator and slammed the button back to the top leveled.

"We're still looking into it."

"Also, the nuclear strike was what the terrorists were after from the start according to Ames. Not the 30 billion dollars!"

"Dam-...it was all a cover up-"

"What are you keeping from me?"

"Nothing! I wasn't told all the facts either. I'm doing all I can to look into this, just be patient. Now, get to the president as soon as possible, that's our #1 priority."

"But...that's the thing. The president is cooperating with them."

"Apperantly, yes. But the terrorists also plan to kill the president once he serves his purpose. There's something going on here, and the president may be able to tell you. You must rescue the president before he re-inputs the code in an hour."

"Alright..." He pulled out his AK, abandoning all hope of stealth with the entire core looking for him, and came out of the elevator, gun blazing. Sure enough, soldiers were ready for his apperance from all angles. He blew them all away, alarms sounding all through the core, as he ran back through the hallway towards the door out.

The bridge had CYPHER's hovering about it, firing in his direction. He blew them away with his automatic gun, felt good to have some real power at his disposal. He thought hard...where was the bridge between the shells? Strut D, the sediment pool. He dashed up the bridge to D, evading CYPHER's and guards the best he could. His suit protected him well to an extent, but it wouldn't stand up forever.

Strut D contained the pool of...some unidentified sludge and two levels of catwalks. A few guards were patrolling around, alertly, expecting someone. Raiden had abandoned the pretense of stealth, and fired away until they were all disposed of.

A level 3 door was against the north wall on the top level, which he climbed up to and opened. Sure enough, the bridge to Shell 2 stood on the other side. But that wasn't all, what appeared to be alot of explosives were attached to the bridge.

"Raiden, can you hear me?" Pliskin.

"Where are you?"

"Strut H right now. You?"

"I'm to the connecting bridge, we have a lead on the president's location. First floor of the Shell 2 core."

"It's a mess here, I can't get to the core right now. There are IR sensors on the bridge, if you trip them the bridge goes off. Shoot the control units, make sure to not get the explosives by accident."

Raiden pulled out his binoculars and zoomed in on a square of SEMTEX. Right next to it was a blinking black device, the control unit. He didn't have time to consider trying to find a sniper rifle...he'd have to take the chance.

He pulled out his SOCOM, which was deadly accurate but hard to use from distances such as these. He aimed carefully at the first control unit and fired. Success, the light flickered and went out. He saw another one right at the foot of the IR sensors in the middle of the bridge. He managed a direct hit on these as well. There was another on Shell 2 itself, just by the bridge, that took three shots before Raiden could flick it off. He then shot a final one at the top left corner of the bridge, and heard the IR sensors shut down.

As he walked across the bridge, Pliskin rang in again. "I found a ride. An enemy Kasatka."

"Good shape?"

"Yep, and a full tank. I'm heading for Shell 1 now. Is the heliport clear?"

"Yeah, the Harrier was gone. Can you cover the hostages? They're on B2 of the Shell core."

"Alright, how many are there?"

"A few short of thirty. One's dead at least, several others wounded."

"This helicopter can only hold 13...I sabatoged the other one so it couldn't follow us...we'll make two trips."

"Cleared for takeoff!" Came a strange voice through the codec.

"Huh?"

"Raiden, this is my partner, Otacon."

"Hey Raiden, nice to meet you."

"Otacon?"

"Talk to you later." The connection cut. Raiden immediately patched into the colonel.

"Colonel, who exactly is this Pliskin and his partner?"

"I know what you're thinking, and-"

"It keeps coming back to Shadow Moses...and now even Otacon's here..."

"Hal Izumi, Ph.D. Shadow Moses survivor. Snake and he became fugitives, wanted for acts of terrorism, post-Shadow Moses."

"Didn't they form an anti-metal gear organization?"

"Yes, and they sabatoged countless Metal Gears all over the world. And they blew the tanker that forced construction of this Big Shell."

"No!" He began pacing again. He always paced when he got nervous. Even in VR. "Snake and this Otacon can't be terrorists."

Rose joined in. "Jack, why are you defending him?"

"I've been looking back on what I've done here...training and a sense of duty alone can't get you through a mission like this. You need...more. Pure will, backed up by courage, or ideals, or something. I'd bet anything on it. The Solid Snake that saved Shadow Moses couldn't be a terrorist."

"Believe what you will, but Snake can't be alive. We recovered his body from the tanker incident two years ago, and the DNA results on it say it's definitely him."

"Jack..Snake his dead. He can't be here, not even as this Hal Izumi."

"That also means he can't be the terrorist leader behind this thing-" he was cut off by the sound of a chopper flying overhead. He looked up and saw Pliskin sitting in the cargo hold and...he supposed Otacon controlling it. Pliskin waved as the chopper flew towards the heliport. Raiden turned to Shell 2, and was greeted by a caped man standing against the wall at the end of the bridge.

"I've been waiting for you. A messenger...from the Patriots!" He looked Raiden over. "Where do I know you from..."

"You're the boss here?"

"Not just here. I'm the boss to surpass Big Boss himself!" He stood up straight, pushing away from the wall, throwing his arms into the air. "Solid Snake!"

The chopper came back, Pliskin holding a M16 out of the cargo hold, aiming it at the caped man. "No! That's not Solid Snake!" He insisted.

"What a pleasant suprise, brother."

"Save it, you're no brother of mine."

"Oh don't tell me you've forgotten me...Snake." He stepped out from his cover at the end of the bridge, walking slowly towards Raiden.

"What? Snake?" Raiden looked up at the chopper in shock.

"Raiden, take cover!" Pliskin...or Snake...yelled. He ducked behind a barrier in the middle of the bridge as Snake unloaded a clip at the caped man. One bullet clipped the SEMTEX, triggering an explosion. The cape burned off his back, but he himself dashed forward and was unharmed. He wore a full body exoskeleton.

"Stop impersonating him, Solidus!" Snake yelled down from the chopper. He fired more shots, but all were deftly deflected away by the exoskeleton. Raiden was confused. Who was Solidus?

"I'm a whole different game from Liquid, brother!" Suddenly, his muscles from within the exoskeleton bulged and enlarged. Snake fired a grenade, but he jumped off the bridge onto a thick pipe right below. Snake fired again, hitting his mark and knocking this imposter off the pipe into the water below.

Or so he thought. The Harrier came up from below, Vamp piloting, with Solidus standing on top of it.

"Shit, we're in trouble! It's the harrier!" Snake yelled over at Otacon. The helicopter flew away quickly as Solidus boarded the Harrier's cockpit.

"The world needs only one big boss! I'll drown you fools for interfering!" He fired off two missiles at either side of the bridge, making escape impossible for Raiden thanks to the plumes of firing blocking his path. The helicopter came back, flying over the unstable bridge, Snake throwing a long box down on it by Raiden.

"Shoot it down!" Snake yelled as he passed by. Raiden ripped the box open and pulled out a missile launcher. The Harrier was bearing down on him, machine gun turrets twirling about, locking onto him.

Suddenly, a ShadowSeraphimon disappeared. Raiden didn't have a ton of knowledge in this area, but he knew this was a mega, and he didn't stand a chance in hell.

Suddenly, a small dot from the Kasatka morphed into a Seraphimon and began to duel it in midair, to much spectacular explosions and other such special effects. Seraphimon brought the fight away from the shell to avoid possible damage. So Raiden was left to shoot down the Harrier.

It was fast and agile, plus loaded to boot. On top of the usual armament, it possessed some stranger weapons that he assumed must have come from some DNAT technology. But he had experience with a missile launcher, and fired away. The tracking device followed it wherever it flew, eventually exploding into it, and whenever it turned to face him he took cover behind the railing wall. It was effective, though he received a few blows he was sure he'd feel in the morning, and soon the Harrier was losing altitude.

It crashed into the bridge, Raiden running from the explosion as it did. The plane took a massive chunk of the bridge down with it as it plummented towards the water. Just as it was about to crash through the water surface and begin a long fall to the bottom, something popped out from under it and grabbed it. Raiden recognized it as Metal Gear RAY.

"What?! It's already active?!"

As RAY fell back into the water, it shot up several rocket clusters into the air. One hit the Kasatka, causing it to bleed out smoke. Another knocked out another chunk of the bridge, sending Raiden flying. He only just managed to grab onto a narrow railing. The damaged chopper flew akwardly to the heliport as Raiden pulled himself back up.

In the Harrier, floating on the water surface that's to RAY's support, Solidus checked his eye socket to find it was missing. "They got my eye!" He looked at Vamp. "Go!"

Vamp jumped out of the cockpit and began to run across the surface. Otacon and Snake noticed this from a distance. "What the hell...it's running on water..." They watched him run up to a strut and then start legging it up the side of it. They patched into Raiden.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, what about you guys?"

"Barely managed, but we're alright. Patamon managed to hold off that ShadowSeraphimon, but he'll be back. We need some time to repair the chopper."

"Oh..."

"The president's all yours."

"Alright...but one thing. Are you really Solid Snake? I thought you were dead."

"No, not me. Too many things I need to do before I die."

"You're a legend, that's why-"

"A legend is nothing but fiction. Someone tells it, someone else remembers, everybody passes it on."

"I'm here because I was assigned to this mission, not because I want to. If I could, I'd be out of here in a second. How could you come back to all this? Why keep fighting?"

"I had a friend once, who told me something. We're not tools of the government or anyone else. Fighting was the only thing I was good at, but...At least I always fought for what I believed in...that's pretty much it."

"Well...alright...what about the DNA results of your body?"

"That was Liquid's body." Otacon explained. "He and Snake are identical to the genetic level. We stole his frozen body and left it in the tanker area to be found. A deception for our own safety."

"So you two really are an NGO?"

"Insofar as we're a nonprofit organization of civilians advocating a cause, yes. The cause happens to be the eradication of Metal Gear. We work on our own. But it's a cause worth fighting for."

"You'd stick your neck out for something so risky?"

"I used to think that way. I was holed up in Damon, drinking too much. We have a responsibility to the coming generations, to the world."

"What do you mean?"

"To keep track of the mistakes we've made as a species."

"We have to remember, spread the word, fight for change. That's what keeps me alive."

"What, you think you can change the future?"

"Of course not."

"But what you guys do...it really does look like terrorism."

"Maybe...but our group, Philanthropy, got information from a reliable source that a new Metal Gear was being developed here, and that terrorists were planning to seize it. We're here to stop all that."

"I also have a personal motive. My sister is apperantly here in the Big Shell."

"Yeah, we're here on our own. Not under any orders."

"But this is a military-" the convo cut. Raiden grunted in frustration, and then Rose gave him a call.

"Jack? Are you alright?"

"Just barely..."

"You almost gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry, wasn't intentional."

"I know that...and I know I need to be stronger..."

The colonel joined in. "What's going on, Raiden?"

"Metal Gear has already gone active!"

"It's not too late. If you can secure the president, you can prevent the nuclear strike. Get to the core of Shell 2. According to satellite images, you can get to the core from the other side of Strut L. Follow the broken off railing down, then jump onto the pipes. Circle around and you'll come to the bridge."

"Jack...Colonel...that attack just now doesn't make any sense. Those missiles, it's like they have no more use for this place and just want to destroy it."

"Colonel, were you listening to the codec calls? That man was Solid Snake, the real one, all along...and the terrorist leader is apperantly his brother..."

"Maybe."

"What? Maybe?"

"Don't let your guard down with him."

"Why?"

"Because they were never a part of the simulation. They're an unknown factor."

"You can shove your simulation up your ass! We're out here, we bleed, we die!"

"Calm down. Even if that is Snake, it has no bearing on your mission."

"Colonel, you and Snake used to be on the same side. I don't understand. I read about you and Snake in "In the Darkness of Shadow Moses"..."

"I don't give a damn what that piece of trash said. Do you get me?" The connection was abruptly cut, leaving Raiden to traverse some very skinny pipes and railings.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: James Johnson

And so he did, carefully walking down a broken railing that just barely held his weight onto a set of pipes that wrapped around the strut. He slowly crept around it, hearing guards walking around on the roofs above. Hoping nobody chanced a look down, he eventually made his way to the bridge that connected into the Shell 2 Core. As he had expected, the entire Shell 2 was a mess, some struts destroyed and others threatening to collapse. But his weight wasn't the difference, luckily, and he got through to the Shell 2 core without incident.

Inside, he heard Olga and Solidus talking in the distance. He crept forward, pulled out his directional microphone, ducked behind a crate, and listened.

"Snake's here...in Shell 1." Came Solidus's booming voice.

"My father has some unfinished business with him..."

"I'm not changing my plans for your personal feelings, Olga."

"Screw your plan! I've waited two years to send him to the bottom of the ocean-next to my old man!"

"No! The launch comes first!"

"Damn..." He heard a thud. Olga might have punched the wall, but he couldn't be sure. "Where's Ke-Ocelot?"

"Why?"

"I don't trust him."

"Don't talk that way about one of you own!"

"He's not, he left my father to die. Remember?"

"...we'll talk later. We need to get the final check on the unit done. The upper connecting bridge for Shell 1 is down."

"Then how do I get back? The chopper?"

"It's out of action, take the Oil Fence around."

"Alright, I'll tell my men to get started."

"Not yet. The intruder is still at large. Listen, Olga, we need the president to reconfirm the code in about twenty minutes. Keep him alive until then."

"Of course." He heard a electrical whirring noise. "No one gets in or out, the grates outside the only door to his room is electrified. The circuit panel is inside the room, and there's no way the president can take it out."

"Excellent. Come back as soon as you're done."

"Yes. One more thing...remember, we live for Buffet when this mission is over. I want half the money for that."

"Of course, that was part of the plan."

"And one last time...don't try anything on us." Olga spun on her heel and walked out of sight down a hallway. Raiden patched into the colonel.

"Colonel, I'm in front of the room where the president is kept. No flooding, but the floor in front of it is electrified."

"Don't test it. Try and find a way to deactivate it...remember your VR training."

He thought back to all of his VR missions. "A nikita..."

"Perhaps, if you can find one." Raiden got up and began moving around, gun at the ready. No sentries in the immediate area...but some cameras. He chaffed them, moving towards the elevator in the back. Just as Shell 1 had, the Shell 2 core had a B1 and B2 as well as the top floor. He descended down into B1. The area right outside the elevator was dry, but then the floor descended slightly down a staircase, which was flooded practically to the brim.

"Raiden, you'll have to swim."

"No problem." He did a few stretches before walking down the stairs, plunging into the ice cold water. Not that he noticed inside his suit. He began breaststroking through the hallways, his eyes open for something that might help in this situation.

After some swimming that began to tax his lungs, he managed to find the armory. He dug through some crates and boxes and found just what he was looking for. A remote-controlled missile launcher. The ends were closed to prevent water from leaking in, and the box of missiles next to it was also waterproof. He grabbed both and began to lug them back towards the stairs.

He emerged through the surface of the water, taking in gasping breaths, pushing the box and weapon onto the floor. That was close...but he didn't have time to feel sorry for himself. He shoved both into the elevator and went back up to the top floor.

He pushed the two objects out of the elevator and began searching around...perhaps a ventilation shaft...it was probably too much to hope, but he had to try.

After some time, he located a vent grate in the wall, and ripped it down. The shaft, sure enough, was there, too small for him. But big enough for a missile. He ran back and grabbed his new toy, loaded it with a couple of rockets, and ran back to it.

He carefully fired it through the hole, using the joystick on the back of the launcher to steer it through. After some weaving and bobbing, he found daylight...yes! The president must have attempted escape by ripping down the grate, only to find it was far too small. But in any case, the grate was ripped off. He steered it past a very confused president, who cowered in the corner. He found what looked like a circuit box and crashed the missile into it. He heard the static crackle from it as well as the electric floor in front of the door to the room as it died.

He threw the bazooka to the side and ran through the door. The president, James Johnson, stood there, slowly standing up and coming out from the corner. He wore a red tie, a white shirt, and black pants. He almost seemed as if he had expected him.

"So you're finally here..."

"President Johnson. You've been expecting me?"

"Yes...that skull suit isn't standard military issue."

"Are you alright?"

Johnson stood right in front of him. He gave a sneer. "Stop playing games and do what you came to do."

"What?"

"I'm prepared to face the consequences of my actions. You're here to kill me, now get it over with."

"What are you...I'm-"

Suddenly, the president reached forward and grabbed his crotch. Raiden, after a few seconds of confusion, pushed away, coiling back. "What the hell?"

"You're a man...strange...well, who are you then?"

"FOXHOUND, sir."

"Ah, yes. Now things are starting to make a little sense."

"Mr. President, it is my understanding that the terrorists have input the code needed for launching a nuclear strike."

"Correct, I punched it in myself."

"You're working for them?!"

"Two hours ago, I would have answered yes. But as of now, they're just keeping me alive until my vital signs are reconfirmed."

"They betrayed you?"

"Not quite. I just wanted power...these terrorists want destruction."

"But why stoop to terrorism in the first place?!"

"I wanted absolute power..."

"But you're the president of the dominant superpower of this world...you have plenty of power."

He gave a short laugh. "No. I'm nothing more than a figure head. I don't have any control at all. The real power is in the hands of the Patriots."

"What? Patriots?"

"Also known as the La-li-lu-le-lo. They're the truth behind this country. Of course, you wouldn't have heard of them...very few know of them." He sighed. "You see...politics, the military, the economy...they control it all. Every election is rigged, every movement of the stock market and economy is controlled, and every policy passed by the government is initiated by the Patriots. Putting it simply, the Patriots rule Server."

"No...that's not possible."

"Hard to believe? It's the truth. Every policy that's been credited to be while I've been in office, the income tax reduction, the NMD program...I did that all according to their instructions."

"NMD was initiated by congress-"

"That's what the Patriots want the public to believe. It's all a big show, democracy is just a filler for textbooks. Think about it...do you actually believe public opinion influence government?"

"...well...no."

"This country is shaped and controlled as the Patriots see fit. The people are shown what they want to believe. What you call government is actually a well-staged production aimed at satisfying the public!"

Raiden stared at Johnson. He felt half like throwing up, half like laughing him off.

"Don't look at me like that. I'm sane, you know."

"It's not your sanity that worries me..."

"I don't even know who the Patriots are. They might be financial, political, or military leaders, nobody really knows. My instructions come from a cutout. All I know is every key decision in Server comes from a group of twelve men known as the Wisemen's Committee."

"What about your office...and congress...and-"

"Puppets. Pawns in a game. I pledged my loyalty to the Patriots, and was awarded the presidency because of it. That wasn't the only price I had to pay..."

"What do you mean?"

"Even if a pawn becomes a queen, it is still just a playing piece. I wanted to leave my own mark in history. But my ambitions were...you'll understand someday...I wanted to become a member of the Patriots. I wanted to become a king, instead of an expendable pawn."

"So that's how you justify terrorism?"

"Yes. I was going to use the new Metal Gear as a bargaining chip. But I underestimated Solidus...he wants to challenge the Patriots, even if it means the destruction of the world!"

"What are you trying to say?"

"The balance of power rests in the hands of the Patriots. They regulate the country's various interests through controlled presentation, staging a "drama" that is palatable to the general masses. Can you imagine what would happen if they ceased to function? It would be a massive political vacuum, every power-monger in the world will try to fill. Panic, a civil war...chaos beyond your wildest imagination. Like it or not, the Patriots have become a integral part of this nation."

"So you changed your mind because you wanted to avoid global chaos?"

"I told Solidus I wanted to prevent disaster...he replied that pawns can never become players."

"Who is this Solidus, exactly?"

"My predecessor...George Sears. The public knew him by that name, but I knew him by "Solidus Snake." He was the third Snake, preceded by Solid and Liquid...a survivor of the Les Enfants Terrible project. Neither Solid nor Liquid, he was a well-balanced masterpiece that the Patriots saw fit to entrust with the Presidency. However, he fell out of grace with the organization four years ago when, acting on his own, he started an incident."

"You don't mean...Shadow Moses?"

"Yes, that's right. The DARPA chief, along with some influential parties, initiated the development of Metal Gear REX and an advanced nuclear warhead. This did not fall in line with the Patriots' plan. Then, Solidus sent in his own man, Ocelot, to provoke Liquid Snake into causing the incident. As a result, he obtained REX and the data on the warhead. But in doing so, he ended up revealing the exsistence of REX and the genome army. A blunder that earned him the wrath of the Patriots. Not long after, he was removed from office."

"Didn't he resign?" But he already knew the answer.

"That was just the story given to the public. After that, I was selected for the presidency." He saw the look on Raiden's face. "Yes, the presidential race and election was quite a show, wasn't it? Even the democrats and republicans were dancing to the Patriots' tune. But something didn't work out to the Patriots' plan. Following his 'resignation', Solidus was supposed to suffer an untimely death."

"You mean capped?"

"Yes. But before the Patriots could kill him, he went underground with the help of Ocelot. While running, he gained control of Dead Cell and won over Colonel Gurlukovich's outfit. Then, he hid, waiting for this." He pointed down at the floor.

"What do you mean?"

"The completion of the new Metal Gear project. By stealing the Patriots' most valued project, he'd be able to place them in a very uncomfortable position and even his odds. It's the only way he can hope to survive for much longer. Once he has the new Metal Gear, he'll declare war against the Patriots. He must be stopped."

"Ermm...Metal Gear is already active."

"No, not yet. What you saw was Metal Gear RAY. That was hijacked two years ago by Ocelot. That's not the new Metal Gear." He spread his arms to his side, pointing at the walls. "This...to be precise, the entire Big Shell facility, is the new Metal Gear."

"What...What?"

"The upper structure is camouflage. The main structure extends down to the ocean floor. There's an elevator in B2 of the shell 1 core that goes down to it. The codename for the new Metal Gear is Metal Gear Arsenal."

"Arsenal?"

"Correct. We're talking about an impregnable fortress carrying a load of over a couple of thousand missiles including nuclear warheads -- all protected by a horde of mass-produced Metal Gear RAY units."

"You've gotta be kidding me...RAY is being mass-produced?"

"The RAY unit was originally designed for the Marines to be used as a countermeasure against the Metal Gear variations throughout the world. The Patriots had RAY redesigned to protect the new Arsenal Gear. Ironic, isn't it, an Anti-Metal Gear being used to guard a Metal Gear. And that's not all, Arsenal has full access to the Military's Tactical Network, giving it the ability to exercise absolute control over our nation's armed forces, not to mention our nuclear armament. In short, Arsenal was created to be the core of our country."

"What kind of an idiotic weapon is this?"

"It's not just a weapon. You're not seeing the big picture. It's meant to preserve the world as it is, to establish a new form of control. The Patriots will use it to keep their place as the country's true rulers. Right now, they feel pressured and threatened."

"By what?"

"They fear an overabundance of digital information -- the world will drown in the coming flood of information, and they along with it. The Arsenal plans include a system to digitally manage the flow of information, making it possible to shape the "truth" for their own purposes. In short, the Arsenal's system is the key to their supremacy."

"Oh, man..."

"The 'GW' system is the Patriots' trump card. When GW is integrated, Arsenal Gear will be fully operational. It will be a completely new form of power for the Patriots to wield. I had hoped to seize the project from them so that I would be in a strong bargaining position...I wanted to enter the Wisemen's Committee. But Solidus wants rebellion. Outer Heaven. He plans to unleash a nuclear blast over the skies of Wall Street to break the Patriots' control over the business community."

"Outer Heaven..."

"There's not much time. It won't be long before GW goes active and Arsenal goes fully operational. Stop them before that happens. That is your role."

"Role?"

"Try and find Emma Izumi, she's the only one who can stop that thing. She was the system programmer for Arsenal Gear. She should be on level B1 in the core of this building."

"But I've been down there, it's completely flooded."

"She can't be dead, they still need her. Look, I heard she was in the locker room in the northwest part of B1. Get moving!" He pulled out a small patch. "Here, it'll give you level 4 access." He then pulled out a mini disc. "And give this to her when you find her. It's a program to disrupt the control functions between GW and Arsenal Gear. Take Emma to the computer room on level B2 of the Shell 1 Core. She'll know how to load the program into the main system."

"So it's a virus?"

"Right. Modeled after FOX-DIE, a biological weapon that selectively eliminates personnel by their genetic code."

"What are you doing with it?"

"The Patriots had it engineered as a failsafe. And Ocelot didn't search me. You've got to hurry!" He handed the disc to him. "Well, that's all you need to know. Just one more thing that needs to be done." He reached down and grabbed the barrel of Raiden's SOCOM and pressed it up to his own chest. "Kill me." He commanded.

"What?"

"There's no time to argue! If you kill me you'll at least prevent a nuclear strike!"

"Absolutely not! Stop!"

"That's your role! Do it! Pull!"

Raiden pulled the gun away from him just as he heard a gunshot from behind him. He saw the president grab his chest as blood poured from it and fall to the ground, dying.

He pivoted around, and was greeted by Ken, holding a smoking Revolver in hand, looking at the President's body writhing on the floor. "That's abusing your right to free speech, Mr. President...or is it Ex-president?" He smiled.

"Why did you...?"

"My finger slipped." He said casually, turning to leave through the door. Raiden was so shocked he didn't even raise his gun. "See you around...Carrier Boy."

He regained use of his legs and tried to run after him, but the president grabbed his foot. "Let him go...he did us a favor. Without freedom, there is no difference between submission and rebellion. My only real choice is to put a end to this charade. Let me at least have the freedom to end it myself...find Emma...stop Arsenal! This is my last order as your Commander-in-Chief...good luck, Soldier." He fell limp to the ground.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Waterlogged

He walked outside the room and immediately connected his codec into the Colonel.

"Colonel, the president is dead!"

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"What do we do now?"

"Given the recent turn of events, we'll honor the President's last directive. Put a stop to Arsenal Gear."

"Do you think his story was...true?"

"I can't confirm that, but he was the President. I'm sure he knew what he was talking about."

"He was part of the terrorist's plot..."

"Yes, but we're talking about a man who'd rather die than risk a nuclear holocaust. Thanks to him, the terrorist's threat is eliminated. There's some credibility to the words of a man who chose death to protect the innocent."

"The Colonel has a point, Jack."

"What about this whole "Patriots" thing?"

"I'll see what I can find out. Find Emma. It's your only hope to stop Arsenal."

As soon as the Colonel and Rose logged off, Raiden patched into Snake's frequency.

"Snake, the President...he's been assassinated. Nothing I could do..."

"What about the code sequence?"

"He died before his vital ID could be reconfirmed. The enemy has lost their nuclear strike capability...but something's not right. Ocelot killed the president on purpose...it doesn't make any sense."

"Maybe there's a way to launch without reconfirming the vital ID? Or they found a more effective weapon within Arsenal Gear." Otacon suggested.

"You knew about Arsenal Gear?!"

"Yeah..."

"And you didn't tell me?"

"You never asked."

He grunted. "Did you also know that the Big Shell was a front for the project?"

"Yeah. It's exactly what the President and Ames described, a massive cover story."

"It actually hasn't done much in terms of cleaning up the enviroment, so we won't have to worry about releasing any toxic gas if we blow the house down."

"When did you two find out about all of this?!"

"Around the time you took out that mad bomber. There's no doubt that Arsenal Gear is being built here...then it was all set up two years ago on that day. All of it."

"What really happened here two years ago?"

"Otacon and me were used. We hoped by going public with photos of RAY, we could persuade the government. That was the plan anyway."

"I've gone through VR training of the Tanker mission before."

Snake gave a laugh. "I doubt it simulates the events of that mission accurately. I'd infiltrated the dummy tanker to obtain proof that a Metal Gear was under development. Shortly after I made it aboard, an armed group led by Colonel Gurlukovich raided the ship and gained control. The raiding party included Olga, Ken, and...him."

"Him?"

"A man that was supposed to be dead. Ken killed off Gurlukovich and Marine Commander Scott Dolph and hijacked RAY. I don't know what kind of deal was going down, but Ken kept saying something at the time...about 'taking it back.' Then he sunk the tanker as he made his getaway."

"And you survived?"

"Otacon had a small boat ready for me."

"Yes. Almost got dragged down with the tanker. Small miracle we made it. It turned out the whole thing was a setup to lure us in. Photos of Snake were released to the public. In turn, we became the world's most wanted environmental terrorists...It was definitely a move aimed at putting a stop to our anti-Metal Gear activities."

"But why did they want to do that in the first place?"

"Since the Shadow Moses incident, Snake became sort of a hero. I think the Patriots weren't too happy about that."

"You know about the Patriots?"

"Somewhat...anyway, they didn't choose Snake to be a hero. So they decided to launch a smear campaign. I think the Patriots wanted to make an example of us so everybody would think twice before opposing them."

"So they set all this up just to nail you guys?"

"No, not quite...you see, the RAY project was carried out in opposition to the Arsenal Gear project. In other words, the Patriots considered RAY to be a thorn in their side. So they attacked the dummy tanker and stole RAY. Then, they sent a fully loaded tanker to the same spot and sank it, so they could set up Big Shell to camouflage Arsenal Gear."

"Yep. And we fell for it. So did Gurukovich and Olga."

"Was Solidus behind this?"

"No. He was underground, keeping a low profile at the time."

"So the Patriots are behind it?"

"Then what's Ocelot doing alongside Solidus now?"

"Who knows? We can figure it out later. Arsenal still has a massive payload of missiles, even without the nuclear threat. Find Emma."

"Wait...Emma Izumi, isn't she-"

"Yes, my sister. She's a computer whiz who specializes in neural-AI and ultra-variable volume data analysis using complex logic. How she got involved in weapons development is beyond me. But whatever her reasons, we need her to stop Arsenal."

"I'm on my way." He ran into the elevator and descended down to B1. Just as before, almost the entire level was flooded. He had some swimming to do. He took a deep breath and jumped in, swimming down the hallways. Objects floated around through the wreakage, which he had to push aside or avoid.

But Raiden had some luck on his side. Every now and then, he came across an air pocket. A raised section of the ceiling where air was flowing in, a bubble trapped under a table, or some other form of relief could be found if Raiden kept alert.

He popped up in a raised portion of the ceiling and took a few breaths. He was about to descend again when Otacon called.

"Raiden...there's something I have to tell you about E.I."

"What?"

"She's...erm...afraid of water."

"What?!"

"Yeah, when she was six she almost drowned with my father in our swimming pool. She used to swim alot before that...I was in my room when it happened. She was calling me for help, never doubting for a moment I'd come. You could see the pool from my room, but I didn't realize at the time she needed my help."

"What we're you doing?"

"Ermm...I was..." he didn't finish.

"So Emma survived?"

"Yes...but my father didn't."

"You blamed yourself and left the family?"

"No. Emma believes that was the case, but the fact is...I betrayed her. I haven't seen her since that day, but I doubt she can swim because of that traumatic experience. I got a letter from her mother awhile back saying she couldn't swim anymore."

"We're in alot of trouble then, this entire floor is flooded!"

"You'll have to try and help her overcome it. It's up to you."

"Got it." He groaned before descending back down, swimming through the maze of water. He pried his way through some doors, coming to a staircase. It led up above the water level. Finally. A door awaited at the top of the stairs, which slid open when he approached it. A strange chamber awaited him. A platform sitting over a strange body of liquid. It looked alot like water, but not quite...but more troubling was that Vamp was sitting on the surface of it. He drew his gun and took aim.

"Still ticking?"

"Unfortunately, hell had no vacancies..." he stood up on the water. Raiden fired three shots. Vamp twisted and spun around to evade them. The third one did manage to graze his cheek. He touched the wound gingerly. "Human muscles are quite eloquent. They speak-out clearly what the person's next movement will be. They even tell me which way a gun will be pointed before the trigger is pulled. But your muscles -- they're different. This should be fun...well worth the wait. I can't let you interfere with Arsenal Gear."

"You knew I was coming?"

He nodded as he pointed towards the door behind him. "She's just up ahead. She is no longer of any use to us, but she served well as bait for you. Crazy Ivan sometimes speaks the truth."

"Emma's alive?"

"Some time ago. But I wouldn't be suprised if she's a mermaid now, with all the flooding." He swung his head back to Raiden. "Did you really think killing the president would prevent a nuclear strike? Think again!"

"I didn't kill the president."

"Arsenal is still armed with a purified hydrogen bomb. No ordinary nuke. Capable of heavy hydrogen nuclear fusion using lasers and magnetics to generate heat-insulated compression. It was a top secret project initiated by the current President...and Solidus has no idea of its existence. The clean thermonuclear bomb is at an experimental stage and is handled differently. Specifically, it becomes launch-capable when Arsenal is activated. A nuclear threat still exists." He gave a short laugh. "Six months ago, we lost everything we believed in...we were abandoned to take the fall in their cover up. We were labeled as killers responsible for the mass-murder of civilians as well as our own allies. And the "public" believed every word, turning a deaf ear to whatever we had to say to the contrary. Our only goal is to wipe them from the face of the earth -- and destroy this world of deceit they have created along with them."

"You're insane."

"We might be the only ones telling the truth..."

An alarm sounded through the PA system. "Final check for activating Arsenal is completed. All non-essential personnel report to your stations..."

"Dammit!" Raiden yelled.

"You're still hoping that girl can install that virus your carrying around?"

"How do you know about that?"

"Well, you're not going to be around long enough to give it to her." He looked down at the water he was standing on. "This water is a byproduct of the microbes contained in the pool. Buoyancy is practically non-existent thanks to the high oxygen content. Once you fall in -- you don't come up! Take a good look at your grave. Show me what you've got!" He jumped up into some above rafters. He raised his SOCOM and began firing wildly.

He jumped around from the rafters, to the water, to the platform, all too fast for Raiden to ever really get a target. Every now and then he threw a knife down at Raiden, which he had to duck and slide to avoid. He got hit a few times, the knife slicing through his suit and flesh, but he got by thanks to the technology of his skull suit. He managed a hit or two every now and then, largely flukes, but he'd take it.

After awhile, Vamp took a more direct approach, landing on the platform and charging physically with a knife, which made things all the more difficult. At least, until he scored the final blow by unexpectedly punching Vamp right in the nose. His muscles must have indeed been different.

Vamp fell back into the water, this time breaking the surface and sinking. "Waaargh!" Slowly, he sunk down to the bottom. Indeed, there wasn't any buoyancy. As soon as he was sure Vamp wouldn't be coming back up, he called the colonel as he ran into the door in the back.

"Colonel! They've completed the final check procedure for Arsenal!"

"Find Emma and take her to the computer room in the core of Shell 1!" Was all the Colonel said before cutting the transmission. Raiden then called into Snake.

"Did you catch that? Arsenal's going active!" He looked down in the second flooded area which he'd have to swim through. He could only hope that she was still alive.

"Yeah. Hostage rescue will have to wait. Get Emma, we'll secure the computer room."

"Can't Otacon install the virus?"

"No, the security for this system is no joke. I'd need more time."

"That's why we need Emma, get her!" Raiden wasted no time in jumping in. At least, he was just about to until his codec rang again. Rose.

"I've always been alone...I'm so lonely..."

"What?" He regained his footing.

"You've never slept beside me..."

"What are you talking about? I-"

"After we've been together in my room...you stay awake all night or you head for the door."

"This really isn't a good time, Rose."

"Why, Jack?"

"Well, I'm sorta in the middle of a mission." He really didn't need this, and was fighting the urge to just cut her off and dive. He began pacing again.

"Why can't you just relax when you're with me?!"

"Umm...look-"

"Why can't you open up to me?!"

"Rose...I just can't, okay?!

"All I ever wanted was to share your dreams -- to spend a meaningful evening with you...I just wanted to find you by my side when I woke up. Is that asking too much?"

"I'm scared of the night, okay? It's got nothing to do with you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I can't relax when I'm with someone..."

"You wouldn't even let me in your room!"

"I need privacy, and I just can't be bothere-wrong word! What I mean is...there are certain things I have to keep to myself."

"Do you remember that time I forced my way into your room? We'd known each other for almost a year...and you blew up! It was the first time you ever raised your hand against me! I was so worried about you..."

"Look, I'm sorry, but I've got something to-"

"It wasn't your violent nature that scared me. It was your room...your heart..."

"Stop it!"

"It looked like a prison cell. Just a bed and small desk. Nothing else. A lifeless room, almost like your empty heart."

"Rose, I only use that room for sleeping."

"I thought I was beginning to understand you -- until I saw that room."

"We'll talk about this later." He jumped into the water and began swimming, driving the conversation out of his mind, wondering if Rose was futilely trying to yell more of her rant through the codec.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: E.I.

After swimming through a couple of hallways he found a staircase that led up above the water. There was nowhere to go but through a door, which beckoned into a locker room. Emma must be in here...but she wasn't in immediate few. He began prying lockers open, one by one, until he came to the one that revealed a small woman. She was sitting on the ground, and panicked as soon as she saw Raiden. She wet her pants and tried to back away, even though there was nowhere to back away. Raiden backed up with his hands up.

"Are you alright?"

"Who are you?"

"Raiden, I'm getting you out of here."

"You're...you're lying, where are you taking me this time?!"

"I'm here to help! I'll prove it...I have nanos." He tapped the side of his head. "Let's try."

"Well...alright."

They connected over the codec. "See, I have nanocommunications."

"Okay...you're not one of them."

"Yes, I came here to get you because I need your help to stop Arsenal. I understand you're the only one who might be able to do it."

"Who told you that?"

"The President."

"Really?"

"We gotta go, you're brother's waiting for you in Shell 1."

"...my brother?"

He tried to grab her and pick her up, but she pulled away. "I can't swim...leave me!"

"You can swim! You used to love it!"

"How do you know?"

"Your brother told me...he's hear to rescue you you know!"

"I don't believe you. He'd never come for me. He left me...my mother...when we needed him the most! When my father died, all he could think about was himself!"

"Let's go over that later, but first we have to get out of here before this place floods!"

"No, I hate water! It's hopeless, I can't swim!"

"Yes, you can! Deep down inside, you know you can swim!"

"I can't keep my eyes open in the water...that endless blue...the water...it wants me...it won't let me go...and I was injected with something, I have trouble moving my legs."

"Look, close your eyes then. I'll guide you. Just hold onto me and i'll do the rest." He led her out the door to the flooded section.

"I'm not good at holding my breath..."

"Just...put your ear against my chest and focus on listening to my heartbeat. Now...one...two..."

"Wait!" Raiden stopped. Emma reached up to her face. "Let me take off my glasses." She took them off and put them in a side pocket.

"You should wear contacts."

"There's nothing wrong with my eyes. I wear them for show. I like glasses, and there's this guy I liked who used to wear them..."

"Boyfriend?"

"No, someone more important. And they bring me luck. Alright, let's go."

Raiden ducked down into the water, Emma holding onto his back, and he began pushing through the water. This was the easy part, there wasn't much flooded area between here and the strange platform room. He came up for air whenever possible, nevertheless. Soon, he emerged up a staircase and walked into the platform room, where they both sat down.

"Let's take a little break." Raiden suggested. Rose called up, and Raiden decided to answer her and tolerate whatever she might rant about.

"Well, Jack. It sounds like you and Miss Emma are getting along just fine. I've been monitoring your every move and conversation. I can't say it's been fun..."

"Do you mind? I'm keeping her spriits up, that's all!"

"You're lying. You're attracted to her, aren't you."

"Well, she is cut-" Dammit, wrong thing to say.

"Cuter than me?" She gave an annoyed grunt. "Have you remembered yet?"

"You mean tomorrow? April 30th?" May as well take a shot in the dark. "Your birthday?"

"You're not even warm!"

"Well, what is it?"

"Forget it...get moving. Good luck." The transmission cut.

"You did good." Raiden told Emma.

"Reminds me of when I was a kid...I remember my brother giving me a piggy back ride, I was sleeping with my ear on his back. I could hear his heartbeat. We were close back then. We were stepchildren in our parent's second marriage. Wherever my brother went, I used to tag along...my brother didn't have any close friends, so he used to take care of me. We both wanted to be loved so much...so much that we used to pretend. Pretend that my brother was the husband and I was the wife. It was just make believe though."

"I think I know what you mean...though I never had a family."

The coloenl chose this moment to radio in. "Raiden, status?"

"We didn't drown. But I'm not sure how I can get back to Shell 1."

"Olga said something about an Oil Fence at the bottom of Strut L. Try that." He got another call.

"Hold on, Colonel, it's Snake."

"Raiden, we're in the computer room. Shell 1's deserted, looks like everyone's on Arsenal."

"We're heading your way, I've got Emma."

Otacon joined in. "There's nothing I can do in this system, E.I. is our only hope,"

"Right, I'll put her on using my Codec as a relay."

"Ermm...Ummm,..." but Raiden already had patch them through.

"Hal?"

"E.I., is that you?" A pause. "Why are you involved with Metal Gear?! You knew our family's dark history, and still got involved?! What's wrong with you?!"

"Oh, I should have known..."

"Why are you repeating the mistakes of our family?"

"...because I wanted to hurt you...wanted to see you suffer...you abandoned me..."

"No, that's not what happened!"

Snake intervened. "That's enough!"

"Who are you?"

"A friend of your brother. Now enough with the sibling rivalry. We haven't got time. Raiden, get her over here right now! Almost everyone is inside Arsenal, but be careful nevertheless."

"I'm on my way!" Raiden grabbed Emma and helped her walk to the other side of the platform, leading her through the door to the second flooded area.

This section was much bigger, and Emma wasn't quite as relaxed after the argument with her brother, so he had a slightly harder time. She kept poking him in the ribs, indicating she needed air, pressuring him to locate a air pocket. It got harder and harder to find them, eventually Raiden started ignoring her and swimming as fast as he could towards the end. Finally, they climbed up the staircase. It was over.

Emma pulled herself out of the water, too relieved to be particularly mad at Raiden, especially as he was her ticket out of here. He held her hand, taking her into the elevator and taking them up to the top floor. He took this opportunity to take the virus disc from his pocket. "I've got this disc the president gave me. It contains a virus that can corrupt Arsenal. I need you to upload it-"

"Oh yeah." She took the disc. "This is my program. Why'd he give it to you?" She looked up at him. "Did something happen to him?"

"The president...he's dead." He quickly changed the subject back. "You wrote this virus?"

"He's dead? What..." She grabbed her head. "I knew I never should have...Hal's right-"

"Enough about that." The elevator slid open, but they stayed inside so this conversation could finish.

"It's not really a virus. It's a worm cluster, a delayed-effect autonomous program that invades GW's cerebrum and renders it's nerve connection useless."

"You know about GW?"

She scoffed. "Of course, I created it." She looked up at his face. "You look suprised." He couldn't quite come up with anything to say. "Cat got your tongue?"

"Ermm...how about the Patriots? Heard of them?"

"Yes, but not much."

"Tell me what you know."

"Okay...it's hard to put into words though."

"Right. Anyway, the president said Arsenal is the key to the Patriots' supremacy."

"That's pretty much it. It's a massive data processing system that can control information on a global scale. It's a social device for maintaining the Patriots' control." She saw the look of confusion on his face. "Okay. In this day and age, information is freely distributed in every direction. Alot of information, gathered by high-power servers so it can be rapidly circulated to individuals. The speed of this circulation process accelerates on a daily basis. The Patriots are afraid of this, they fear their role will shift from dominant to dominated. For example, you know of Solid Snake's Anti-Metal Gear activities?"

"Yeah, a little."

"That's a small sample of uncontrolled information, The Patriots didn't want Solid Snake's name to become publicized, didn't want him to become a hero, but he did. If this uncontrolled information continues to grow, the Patriots may lose control over Server. Up until now, the Patriots have managed to keep a lid on political scandals and corporate corruption...but with their current data processing system, they can no longer effectively control information generated at the individual level. But with GW, they can fully regulate digital information. High-level information can be categorized, given clearance levels, and deleted, never to be seen by the public. By controlling and deleting such information, the Patriots can shape the course of history as they see fit."

"No way, somebody's bound to catch on..."

"No. The memory capacity and lifespan of the average individual is extremely limited. Meanwhile, digital information lasts forever."

"So?"

"The alphabet is 26 letters, right? It could have been 30 letters. What if the 4 deleted letters were controlled by a program?"

"Impossible."

"Not at all. In fact, something similar is happening right now. Do you know how many genes exist in an individual?"

"30 to 40 thousand?"

"Correct. That's what was announced in the last few years. However, there are actually 100 thousand according to the original theory. Information regarded the remaining 60 thousand was suppressed by the Patriots."

"No way..."

"Do you know what a gene looks like? Did you count them yourself? How would you know?"

"Well...there have been research organizations..."

"Their reports have been subtly altered. They're even beginning to believe the doctored reports. Basically, GW is a system that allows the Patriots to decide what will be recorded in tomorrow's history."

"It's all one huge censorship system for deleting information which might be inconvenient to the Patriots?"

"Exactly. The core for handling this task, GW, is installed in Arsenal. It has an optic neural AI that has a parallel processing capacity of 980 trillion hammets."

"That explains why you're a part of this project."

"That's not the only reason...there are plenty more." She didn't continue, so Raiden picked it up again.

"So Arsenal is designed to protect GW?"

"Yes. It's armed with Nuclear weapons, cyber terrorist countermeasures, and DNAT modifications created from Digimon the public doesn't even know about. Let's just say they put typical megas to shame. It's the ultimate fortress for housing GW."

"The AI is actually capable of controlling everything?"

"No, GW is just the system core, to decide what data is stored or deleted. The system that executes the task is within our social structure."

"What?!"

"You see, starting eight years ago, every single computer program that's been released to the general public has included a program designed by the Patriots."

"Impossible."

"How would you know? Nobody's aware of it, but every computer in the world has a sub-system in place that's about to be activated."

"So that's why Solidus wants to burn out every electrical circuit in Swet with a nuke?"

"Probably, but the overall system isn't complete yet. It still lacks the ability to judge situations. I heard they were planning a major experiment in the next few days to provide complex data for GW, but don't know the details. And now all this happens..."

"Emma...it's not your fault."

"Yeah...you're right. That's all I know."

"Then we better move." He began pulling her out onto the top floor, slowly helping her through the top floor out of the shell 2 core.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Already died once

Emma gave Raiden a level 5 patch she had just remembered she had, and they continued on. They made their way through a few wrecked bridges and struts and got to Strut L. The search for the oil fence brought them to a hatch in the ground. He opened it up, air rushing out as he did so. It was a long way down to the Oil Fence.

"You feel okay about heights?"

"I can't say I like them..." she looked down the hatch. "But my legs are better now. How far down is it?"

"I'd say...about 130 feet."

"I'm assuming you won't take no for an answer."

"Correct. Follow me." He stuck his legs down the hatch until he found the first rung and began the journey down. Emma followed, managing pretty well by not looking down.

They touched down at the bottom of the strut, and sure enough, an Oil Fence stretched from it to the bottom of a strut in shell 1. Raiden began scouting the defenses on and around the fence...soldiers and CYPHERs...but Emma was watching the sunset turn the water and surrounding sky red.

"It's beautiful..."

"It'll be the last one we see if we don't hurry. I don't think we'll be able to sneak past all of that. And this bridge doesn't look very sturdy." He looked back at Emma. "You go alone. I'll cover you from here."

Snake chose this moment to ring in. "Raiden, what's up?"

"We're on the lower part of Strut L The pontoon bridge to Shell 1 doesn't look sturdy, so Emma's gonna go alone."

"Got it. I've positioned myself so I have a good view of the bridge. I got a sniper, so I can cover her as well."

"Good. Emma, come on."

"I can't swim...what if I fall?!"

"You were doing fine before. Get moving."

Obviously, she didn't like it. But she was tough, and slowly began walking over the bridge, around to the strut. Raiden did the best he could with his SOCOM, but any hits he managed to register on enemy soldiers or CYPHERS were largely flukes. Snake stole the show with some fancy sniping. Emma had little contest in her crossing.

She was in the final stretch of the bridge, just another minute and she'd have made it...which is usually the time something happens, of course. This time was no exception. Back from the dead yet again, Vamp popped out of the water right by Emma, landed on the bridge, and grabbed her, holding a knife at her throat.

Snake reacted fast and without second thoughts, shooting Vamp right in the cerebrum. Once again, he fell back into the ocean, screaming. Emma stumbled, but somehow didn't fall off, and fell to the ground. Snake appeared on the other side of the bridge, running towards her crumpled body. Raiden watched him bend down to check on her.

"Raiden, Emma's been stabbed in the stomach!"

"That bastard!"

"She's conscious...but the bleeding's bad. I'm getting her to the computer room. Get that disc over here ASAP." He saw him pick up Emma and run back to Shell 1. Raiden got up, abandoning caution, and sprinted across the Oil Fence. He'd never figure out how he managed to not slip, but after quite a bit of running, he was somehow still standing on the other side. Once he was, he continued to move towards the core while contacting Snake.

"Status?"

"Emma's doing something to Arsenal's defensive capabilities. Frankly, I don't think she's gonna make it. All she needs now is that disc, get it over here."

He climbed up a ladder and through the strut, finding the bridge connecting the Core. He didn't even acknowledge which strut and bridge it was, just that he was on the way to the core.

Sure enough, everyone was aboard Arsenal, so the coast was clear. He had no problem boarding the elevator and taking it down to B2. The computer room awaited, with a worried Snake, a emotional wreak Otacon, and a clearly injured Emma, lying on the floor.

"He got some internal organs...we can't stop the bleeding..." Snake said lamely as Raiden gave her the disc. "Just pop in the computer, she said she set everything up."

"Hal...is that you?" Hal was leaning down over his sister.

"I'm here, E.I."

Raiden put the disc in a computer slot.

"That should load the virus..." a loading bar appeared on the screen, slowly filling the red bar with green from left to right. "Looks like it's working."

Suddenly, something, an alert, appeared on the screen, and the loading stopped at 90.

"What the...an antibody agent?!"

"Dammit! The connection's been cut! The count stopped at 90, I don't think it got uploaded. Otacon..."

"I don't think Emma made any mistakes..." Otacon said slowly, still holding his sister's hand. "The worm cluster might have been altered since it left Emma's hands."

"Will it still work?"

"No idea..."

"Hal...is everything alright?"

Otacon turned back to Emma, not sure what to say.

"Ummm...yeah...everything's alright."

"Good...at least I won't be adding another page to our family's dark history." She coughed up blood.

"That's right..." Otacon soothed her.

Raiden leaned in next to Snake. "What do we do if the virus doesn't work?"

"Destroy Arsenal or take out Solidus."

"Can we even get on board?"

"Not unless someone inside gives us a hand-"

"Hal...I..." both of them stopped their conversation to listen to Emma's final words. "always wanted to see you again."

"You don't hate me?"

"No...I never wanted to get into your way. I never wanted to hurt you. I only participated in Arsenal because I wanted...to be...be closer to you. I wanted you...to look at me as a woman."

"E.I...I could never do that..."

"Don't be so honest...can I ask you one last favor? Call me...Emma."

"What?"

"Please call me Emma."

"What's wrong with E.I.?" She reached up and slowly removed his glasses. Then, her body fell limp, Otacon's glasses clattering to the floor. "Emma...Emma? Emma?!"

Otacon began to burst into tears. Raiden and Snake looked at each other, wondering whether or not to try and console him.

"I didn't...I didn't mean to hurt you. Because of the accident...I had a relationship with your mother." Otacon began to Emma's corpse. Raiden and Snake had to fight to not gasp in shock at this revelation. "She seduced me, and it went on...father's dead was no accident, he took his own life. It was all my fault..." He slowly closed her eyelids, then got up.

An announcement over the PA interuptted this terse moment. "Arsenal Gear is ready to launch. Evacuate the upper levels immediately!"

"Crap, they must be cutting this place loose!" Snake exclaimed. "We're gonna sink!"

"We need to get the hostages out." Otacon finally said. "We'll have to take as many as we can, I fixed the Kamov..." he looked at Emma "my sister won't be able to come with us."

"We will be commencing the countdown shortly. All personnel in the upper level, evacuate immediately!"

"I'm always the survivor...Sniper Wolf...Emma..."

Snake walked up to Otacon. "Otacon, take care of the hostages. We've got other arrangements." He looked at the elevator that took a capsule down to Arsenal Gear. "That's our ride out of here. If the virus doesn't work we'll have to sink it."

"I should be going with you-"

"No. You've got your job, we've got ours." He put his hand up on Otacon's shoulder. "Only you can save those hostages. Got it?"

"Right." He nodded. "There's no way you two can destroy Arsenal. You'll have to eliminate the enemy, that's your only option."

The three of them walked up to the elevator. Upon reaching it, Otacon punched the door in frustration.

"Pull yourself together. You've got a job to do."

"Yeah...you're right." Otacon took off towards the other elevator, leading back up, while Raiden and Snake prepared to go down into Arsenal.

"I'm counting on you Otacon!" Snake and Raiden turned to the elevator.

"Are you sure he'll be okay?"

"He's tougher than he looks." Snake handed Raiden a disc.

"Now how do we open this thing?"

Snake looked up at the ceiling. "You can come out now."

The ninja flipped down from the ceiling, landing by Snake's side. Raiden pulled out his SOCOM out of reflex, aiming it at Mr. X.

"What the-"

"Arsenal is going to take off." The ninja said in his warped voice, apperantly to Snake. "But we still need to take care of a few things. This time, do not fail us."

"Snake, what's this all about?!" Raiden demanded.

"Bedtime, Raiden." The ninja knocked the gun out of his hand with his sword, then placing the blade against his neck.

"You're changing sides now?"

"I don't recall saying I was on your side to begin with." Snake gave a cocky smile that really pissed Raiden off.

The ninja raised a finger to the side of his head and touched it. The front of his mask went transperant, revealing...Olga Gurlukovich.

"You!"

"Ready for some Shut-eye?" He poked Raiden lightly with the sword, which sent a electrical current through his body. Raiden fell to the floor, unconscious, his brain still not yet comprehending what this turn of events might mean.

Not long after, the Big Shell began to fall into the ocean, flooding every dry bit of it left. Certainly, nothing still inside it could still survive...


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Arsenal Gear

Luckily, but the time this happened, Otacon was already on the Helicopter, and our heroes had managed to infiltrate Arsenal Gear. However, Raiden's method of infiltration was hardly desirable.

He slowly came to, his mind still flowing back to him. A big blurry light was beaming down at his face. He was slowly daring to open his eyes. He thought he was naked, but he couldn't be sure...he heard voices.

"Is he still alive?" Who's voice was that? Oh right...Solidus.

"He was when he was brought in by Olga. There's nothing on this guy, I've checked NSA, CIA, FBI...everything...he doesn't exist. He's a nonexsistant operative from a nonexsistant organization." That was Ocelot, or Ken. Oh wait...they were the same person. Right.

"I suspected so. But I know him. Wake him up."

He felt the platform...maybe a table...rotate up to be adjacent with the floor. He opened his eyes and was greeted by the sight of Solidus standing in front of him. Solidus had two tentacle attachments on his exoskeleton now, and looked strangely thrilled to see him.

"It's been awhile...Jack the Ripper. You remember me, don't you? Oh how you've grown..."

One of his tentacles reached out and grabbed his neck, the other hovered right in front of his face. "Aaaarrrghhh!"

"Hmmm...cerebral implants...have they altered your memory?"

He stepped back, letting him go. Raiden looked around. He was strapped to a revolving bed of sorts, and was indeed completely naked.

"This is my son." Solidus explained to Ken. "I taught him everything. Jack...I never thought I'd see you again."

"Huh?"

"You don't remember? Your name, skills...everything you know, you know from me. During the Civil War in the 30's...you were one of the best among the child soldiers that fought in that conflict. When you were 10 years old you became the leader of the small boy's unit. Your outstanding kill record earned you nicknames like White Devil and Jack the Ripper. Jack...I was your godfather. After the war, you disappeared...I should have known they would have recruited you."

"What an interesting coincidence."

"I doubt he knows anything. Just a lackey of the Patriots. We'll use him like you suggested."

"And Dead Cell?"

"Ignore them."

Suddenly, Ken reached down and grabbed his arm again. Raiden saw it twitch. "Dammit!"

"Again?"

"He must be here...he has to be..."

"In another hour we'll demonstrate the power of Arsenal Gear."

Ken managed to regain control over his arm. "Standard weapons?"

"Proceed as planned."

"At last report, all was well with GW, And the men have been fitted with Arsenal Gear equipment." Ken took a long look at Solidus. "You know, you really are the spitting image of Big Boss now with that eyepatch."

Solidus gave a booming laugh. "Perhaps I should be grateful to this kid then." Solidus casually strolled out of the room, leaving Ken and Raiden alone.

"I find this situation...very nostalgic..."

"Where am I?"

"Inside Arsenal Gear, of course. Actually, we're also inside the memory of Shadow Moses." He held up a disc. The disc Snake had given Raiden. "I'll be taking this back."

Suddenly, Olga entered the room, not wearing her Ninja garb. She seemed angry.

"A foul wind is blowing." Ken commented. "We shall speak again." He then followed Solidus out of the room. Olga stood, looking away from Raiden.

"Don't move, we're being monitored by a camera. Switch to nanos..."

Raiden contacted Olga through the codec, speaking through his using his mind.

"Mr. X? Ninja?"

"Correct, that was all me."

"I thought you were leader of those troops?"

"That was just a smokescreen. I was sent in to provide support for you."

"Who sent you, the colonel?"

"No...the Patriots."

"What?!"

"I deceived my troops...betrayed them..."

"Why?"

She heaved a great sigh. "My child is being held hostage by the Patriots. Two years ago when I lost my father, me and my men had nowhere to go. We joined forces with an illegal Buffet organization. I learned later it was a subordinate organization of the Patriots, When I gave birth to my child, it turned out I was in a hospital run by the Patriots. In the morning, my baby was gone...he's somewhere in Server."

"You've never met him?"

"No, they send me a photo of my child once a month. I've never even held him."

"Well...I suppose no one can blame you for what you did."

"Huh. That's your opinion."

"What about Snake...I thought you wanted revenge on him for killing your father..."

"He didn't kill my father. In fact, he saved our lives. I confronted him here and learned the truth, he actually pulled me out of the sinking tanker."

"When was this?"

"When you were holding hands with that girl. Emma."

"So you two have joined hands so you can pay him a debt?"

"No. Mutal gain. My job was to assist you. If Solidus gets away with Arsenal, your mission will be a failure. And in turn, the Patriots will consider my mission a failure and terminate my child."

"But...why would the Patriots want to help me? Are they hoping I'll take Solidus out?"

"No...we're just pawns..."

"What do you mean? Of what?"

"The S3 plan. I can't explain it now...you'll figure it out soon. Though I wonder if you'll handle it. We don't have much time."

"What about the Virus?"

"No results so far."

"Get me out of this thing."

"After I leave the room. We have to be careful, we're being watched. After you get out, go find Snake in the hangar pass the passageway ahead. He has your gear. Listen, you'll have to stop Solidus, you can't hope to destroy Arsenal."

"And what are you gonna do?"

"Stay concealed...that's my role. I can't be discovered yet."

"What do you mean...role..." but she had already cut transmission and walked out of the room. Rose patched into him.

"Jack, you okay?"

"Yeah."

"Is it true? Solidus, what he said?"

"Yep."

"Drafting small children and sending them to war is illegal!"

"ICC rules don't mean anything in war. There were over 300,000 children in combat, I was just one of them. My memory has been changed, but I have nightmares about it."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You wouldn't understand, I didn't want you to get hurt. There was never a reason for me to fight, except that someone gave me a gun. Solidus. If I survived the day's fight, I was praised, fed, and had a bed to sleep in. I think I held my first AK when I was six. I never questioned why we fought. No purpose. They give you a gun, you ask how many to kill, or you were the one shot."

"No one is blaming you, it's okay."

"We were shown Hollywood action movies every day. Macho guys with big guns...image training. They built us into killing machines. We were fed once a day, I can still taste the gunpowder they mixed into the food."

"What?"

"The gunpowder had hallucinogenic effects, keeping us drugged."

Rose began to cry.

"After the war, the survivors were taken in by NGO's. I got a new life in Server. But nothing's changed...I still have terrible nightmares, every night."

"Jack..."

"That's why I don't sleep next to you. I'm afraid of the night."

"You should have told me."

"What? That I'm a killer and always will be? What I hate more than anything else in the whole world is my own past. I don't want anyone to know about it. Now I know why I was chosen for this mission. To take down Solidus. No one can except me."

"Jack, believe me, I love you way the way you are. I didn't know anything about you...but I know now. I'll share in your past if that's the price."

"It doesn't work that way...it's not one of those things couples can share."

"That's what you do for someone you love, take the bad with the good."

"I just want to forget my past, not share it."

"Jack...I haven't told you about what I've done..."

"The last two years with you have been amazing...but I can't go any further. You want to get married, but I can't. I can't risk it."

"It's okay...Jack...don't say anymore..."

Suddenly, the restraints on the bed fell open, and Raiden jumped down from the bed. He ran through the door out into the passageway.

"Raiden, continue your m-m-mission." The colonel instructed.

"I need to find Snake and get my gear."

"He was never factored in the simulation. Leave him out of this."

"But I'm completely naked!"

"...true. Fine, get your equipment. Then take out Solidus, Arsenal must be recovered intact."

"Are you under orders from the Patriots?"

"Your role is to infiltrate the structure and disarm the terrorists."

"My role? What the hell does that mean?"

"This is a type of Role-Playing Game, isn't it? You have to play out your part, and I expect a perfect performance!"

"...colonel..I just realized something. I've never met you in person...once."

"...complete your mission according to simulation!"

"Who are you, colonel?"

"No more questions. We have Rosemary."

"What do you mean by that?!"

"Over and out." The connection cut, leaving Raiden to journey forth into the belly of Arsenal Gear.

He kept his mind off this strange convo, and looked forward down the path. At the end of the path was a staircase that led up to a second level of the area. He saw several Metal Gear RAY in the wall, in storage. Ninjas patrolled about the area, and he was in no shape to try and face them.

So he crept around slowly, using shadows and crates to hide. Suddenly, he got another call.

"Raiden, turn the game console off right now!" The colonel yelled.

"What did you say?"

"The mission is a failure, cut the power now!"

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Don't worry, it's just a game!"

"You'll ruin your eyes playing so close to the TV." Rose added.

"What the hell is wrong with you two?!" He cut the connection and kept sneaking down the hallway, past ninjas. But a second later, he got another call.

"Raiden, last thursday I was driving home and something happened. I saw a glowing orange object in the sky, moving around oddly. Then there was this intense light all around me...it engulfed me...and when I came to I was home. What do you think happened to me?"

"What?!"

"Fine, forget it." The connection cut, and a very confused Raiden tried his best to keep his mind on the mission.

He reached the staircase, and the colonel called yet again. "Variety level 13, Rescue Maryl, the return of Genola."

He walked halfway up the steps, and the colonel called in yet again.

"Infiltrate...the enemy fortress...outer heaven...destroy...final weapon...metal gear!" The transmission went dead before Raiden could consider responding. Not that he would.

At the top of the stairs, it happened again. "Kawanishi-Noseguchi, Kinunobebashi, Takiyama, Uguisunomori, Tsuzumigataki, Tada, Hirano, Ichinotoriim Uneno, Yamashita, Sasabe, Kofudai, Tokiwadai, Myoukenguchi."

Every few steps he took towards the door he saw at the opposite end, the colonel called in again with mad nonsense.

"Honestly, though, you have played the game for a long time. Don't you have anything else to do with your time?"

"An Anemone or Clematic Plant's juice can cause a rash. When pruning them it's a good idea to wear gloves."

"I hear it's amazing when the gamouse purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on Hara-kiri Rock. I need scissors! 61!"

"Actually, there is something I have been meaning to tell you but I just couldn't...I think you should know, though. On Saturday morning last week, I saw a guy leave Rosemary's room. How should I put it, it was like they were..."intimate". I'm sorry. Sorry to bring this up during the mission, but..."

""President Baker should be somewhere to the south of where you blasted through the wall. Hurry and save him before the terrorists discover his code."

"Actually, I am in really bad shape financially. I pay money to my ex-wife as part of our divorce settlement, among other bills. I just had no choice but to make you pay for lunch the other day. I'm really sorry."

"Your mission is to infiltrate the fortress Galuada, rescue the hostages and neutralize Metal Gear before its assembly is complete."

"I was a North American Fall Webworm in my past life. Those were the good old days...What were you in your former life?"

"You got a PSG-1? You can use that against Sniper Wolf. Hurry up and save Meryl!"

"Even my patience has its limits. I just can't leave this thing up to you any longer. I'll do the fighting! You can just go home!"

"I noticed this a while back, but you have far too many Game Overs. Sorry to be blunt, but you really stink at this game."

"You seem to get a real thrill out of slaughtering the enemy. Are you frustrated about something?"

"Snake, you're all alone and surrounded by bad guys. Try to be careful and avoid getting into a fight whenever you can."

"You enjoy all the killing!"

"You wouldn't be trying to give yourself a bogus score by using some ingenious trick would you? That's just about as low as anyone could possibly stoop! I can't believe you sometimes..."

"Variety Level 7, Shoot down the space invaders! Training will have to be postponed if we are invaded by ufos."

"Snake, There's a fork in the conveyor belt. The machine is automatically sorting cargo according to some system. Take a good look at the device."

"Communitcator Entertainment Program Idea Spy 2.5 Episode 1. New York. Here in the city where dreams come true and desires rule, something is being brought, sold and thrown away, even as we speak. But behind the scenes of business as usual, the nefarious J.E. (Junker Expensive) Corporation lines its already bloated coffers with profits from worthless products. As J.E. swindles yet another innocent into purchasing high-priced junk, the FBI mobilizes a top secret task force to stop the menace. Now, the city's best kept secret spy is out there, briefed and ready to protect people from J.E., the catalouge of conspiracy... Just call him, 2.5."

"Snake, Like Shakespeare said, "Noughts had, all's spent, where our desire is got without content." Basically, it means your desire can get you into trouble if you're not careful. That goes for items too. Don't get greedy or you may be sorry. Be careful, Snake."

"Weapon mode Socom Level 1. Destroy all targets to reach the goal! Number of targets: 3."

"I say again. Your duty is to infiltrate Zanzibar Land and seize Kio Marf, an abducted Czechoslovakian biologist."

"ZZ...zz..."

"Snake, they've input both detonation codes. The only way to stop the launch is to use the card key to reinput the codes."

"That reminds me, I saw Gubayama the other day in Shibomnigee. He said to give you his best."

"Snake, Take the power plant out. Set C4 explosives on four key points to destroy the structure. Snake, destroy the power plant's main turbine. It's located in the B1 floor of the plant. Break into the B1 floor."

"Munch, Munch...Um? Raiden? I'm eating right now. Get back to me later...Munch, munch..."

"La-li-lu-le-lo! La-li-lu-le-lo!! La-li-lu-le-lo!!!"

"I'm not home right now. Please leave a message after the beep. BEEP"

"Mind the gap."

"Big Boss here...Enter the track on the bridge to the right...over."

"I can't believe the person who committed those sick acts in the women's bathroom made it this far."

Finally, he made it to the end of the Hangar and entered a thin hallway, where he was jogging around, trying to keep warm. The colonel's nonsense had stopped...but Rose called in moments later.

"Jack, I owe you an apology."

"No, I'm the one who's sorry."

"It's not that...that day at Federal Hall, two years ago. It wasn't a coincidence we met. I was ordered to keep an eye on you...by the Patriots."

"You're a spy?"

"Yes...ugly word. But I fell in love with you..."

"Was sleeping with me part of the job?!"

"I can't excuse what I did, I reported every detail of your personnel life to them for two years."

"Huh. Must have been fun. So that's why you were involved in this mission."

"But there are some things I didn't tell anyone! Like how I felt-"

"No matter where I go I get used."

"My hair, clothes, the way I move, things I talked about...all of it was reinvented by me to suit your tastes. My hair color, my eyes, they're not even real. It was my job."

"Good job. Completely fooled me."

"What I really wanted was for you to see the real me. It hurt to play this out. It was terrible, lying to you. The more love you gave the more it hurt. Because the person you loved was a character."

"Just a game, not the real thing. I feel better knowing that. I was in love with someone who didn't exist. I tried to be someone I wasn't by loving by wasn't real. In a sense, the deception was my own, not theirs."

"Jack, I really did fall in love with you during the act!"

"You expect me to believe that? It's okay, I understand."

Rose spoke again, this time her voice was distorted. "Jack!! I'm...carrying...pregnant Jack...your baby..." then the connection cut.

"Rose?! What's going on?!"

But there was nobody on the other end. Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he spun around. Snake, dressed in a tight fitting gray stealth suit, holding a box. "Amazing you can walk around like that."

"Snake!"

He threw the box at his feet. It held all his equipment, which he began to put onto his person. "Sorry about earlier, I had to use you as bait to get into Arsenal. Of course, it worked."

"You could have told me about Olga, you know."

"You never asked." He gave a short laugh.

"What about the virus?"

"Still waiting. Looks like it was rigged by the Patriots. Arsenal is headed for Swed, I dunno what the plan is though. There's a troop of production-model RAY's ahead."

"How many?"

"Twenty Five."

"What?!"

"Yeah...never faced that many Metal Gears before, but I think we can deal." Patamon floated down from the ceiling. "At least, we can try. Let's get moving."

"I dunno if we can do this..."

"We have to." Snake replied simply, heading towards the door at the end of the hallway.

"Snake...have you ever enjoyed killing someone? Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between a game and reality."

"Yup. Diminished sense of reality. VR training does that."

"I lied, Snake. I have more field experience than I can remember. When I was a kid."

"Raiden, we're not here to help some politician or take some people down."

I'm Jack the Ripper, a dirty reminder...of a terrible mistake. I can't say that, you can because you're a legend."

"That doesn't mean alot, I was just a name to exploit. People only remember the good part of what you did."

"What are you and Otacon fighting for?"

"A future. To stop being part of the mistake. We're not here to kill people or make a name for ourself. Find something you believe in, and believe in it, and pass it on to the future."

Snake walked ahead to the door at the end of the hallway. "Come on!"

Otacon, however, chose this moment to call in. "I got the hostages out! How are you guys?"

"Good, except...the colonel's been acting very weird."

"Where is this man?"

"I've never met him."

"I'll dig around. I'll call you if I find anything."

Snake picked up the two remaining objects in the box. A pair of M16s. He gave one to Raiden, readied the other in his hands, and they burst through the door.

A bunch of ninjas awaited them down a hallway, several of whom were immediately met by machine gun fire from the duo. Patamon floated ahead, taking care of what he could from his rookie form.

They made their way across the hallway, ninja's flipping about all around them, sometimes getting in close enough to use their sharp blades, but they managed to get through in one piece. It felt good to just blow people away for once.

In the next room, a small connecting room that was empty, Otacon called.

"Raiden...this colonel of yours is inside Arsenal."

"What?"

"Without going into all the details, it's encryption protocol is the same of GW. I think you've been talking to an AI."

"Impossible!"

"I think GW was stimulating cortical activity in the dormant part of your brain. In part, the colonel is your creation. What he said throughout this mission is cobbled together by your expectations of what he would say in certain situations. The virus is starting to affect GW, explaining the Colonel's strange behavior."

"So everything I've done so far...it's an illusion?"

Snake stepped in front of him. "I don't know, but I see you standing right here in front of me, flesh and blood."

He took a deep breath. "Alright...let's go."

While cutting through the next ninja filled room, the colonel called again. "Raiden, Rose is being held in the holds!"

Snake yelled over at him while firing up in the rafters. "It's a trap, ignore it!"

"Help!"

"Raiden, if the colonel doesn't exist he can't take Rose hostage."

"...okay...but does Rose even exist?"

"Of course! Don't think about that right now!"

"I don't know...maybe everything,.."

"Get moving!" Snake roared as he charged forward into the next door. Raiden cleared his head and followed.

The next room was a small encloses area, with about 25 ninjas ready to attack. He began firing around madly, killing them wherever he saw them...and then, suddenly, a blinding pain in his head.

He fell to his knees, shutting his eyes tight. Odd...he saw a pure white, not a black like he'd expect. Slowly, what appeared to be a moving picture of a 3rd person view from above the room they were in came into focus. It was small. To the right of it was a pair of nonsense words. "FISSION MAILED."

A second later, it was gone, and he was back to fighting. But after killing off ten more, it happened once again. This time, on the bottom of the scene in his eyelids, the words "EONTINUE" and "CXIT" were visible.

Then he was back in the fight, killing off more ninjas. After spilling some final blood, the ninjas stopped...

Footsteps. They turned around. Fortune, Rail Gun and all.

"Dammit."

"Solid Snake, two years ago, you killed my father. That began hell for me, one by one everyone I love has died...and I can't follow them. All I live for is to die now. And to see it end."

"Do you really plan to fire the nuke?"

"If I can't die, I might as well kill as many people as I can."

Snake motioned up a ladder on the other side of the room. "She wants me. Go on ahead. Patamon, go with him and help him."

"But you...bullets can't get near her."

"I'll think of something." He winked, then turned to Fortune. "I don't know what you've been through...but I swear I didn't kill your father."

"Do you think anyone believes your lies?" She began to charge her railgun. Raiden scampered up the ladder, Patamon close behind. He heard Snake give a battle cry and began firing off madly, and then a Rail Gun bolt fire, before coming up in the next floor.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Solid Snake Simulation

Raiden and Patamon arrived at the top, in a huge circular arena. It appeared to be out in the open, maybe on top of Arsenal. He couldn't see anything in the distance in any direction. Then, Solidus's voice boomed out of nowhere.

"Jack, I've been watching you fight. You remember the way you used to kill in the old days! Or maybe it's one of the S3 plan's proud achievements?"

Raiden whirled around, trying to locate the sound. "What are you talking about?!"

"Very well. You may as well know. Recently, Ocelot discovered the S3 data in GW. Good idea, I must say, using fire to fight fire, creating the perfect assassin to retire Solid Snake's brother. You see, S3 stands for Solid Snake Simulation. It's a development program that artificially reproduces Solid Snake, the ultimate soldier. The result is a FOXHOUND commando. When FOXHOUND no longer exists, a simulated Solid Snake, shaped by VR regimen. Sound familiar? It's sad, seeing you as one of the Patriots' puppets. But I've made use of it. Solid Snake and you arriving here, it was obvious the Patriots had a spy amongst my ranks. You came in handy in smoking him out. Jack...those days in the Civil War were real...every day was split between life and death. Now, you've been led back to war by something less than real."

Suddenly, Solidus appeared behind him, skating across the platform, throwing up sparks. Raiden spun around, M16 out.

"Now that you know, there's no reason for you to live..." He pointed behind Raiden. He spun back around, and was greeted by three Metal Gear Rays. He nearly swallowed his tongue.

"I've given you a worthy opponent, but now, you should die as the little Jackie boy I knew..."

Patamon wasted no time in digivolving up to Seraphimon and flying out to meet him. Solidus threw a large box at Raiden, which landed behind him at his feet. Raiden ripped it open and pulled out a Stinger launcher. "Enjoy!"

The RAY's launched massive payloads of missiles at the pair, Seraphimon doing what he could to block Raiden as he tried to do as much as he could with his Stinger. He didn't have much success, simple weaponry had little effect on the RAY's. Seraphimon was having his own problems facing multiple ones as well, at best he could take on one at a time under normal conditions.

But they proved to be tough customers, taking them down one by one. However, every time one was destroyed, another jumped up from out of nowhere to take it's place. They kept getting closer and closer to the platform from which Raiden stood, and all he could do was fire off Stingers to very little, if any, effect.

Even Seraphimon wore down over time. After taking out about 6 of them, he was pushed back into the platform, just barely holding them off. After taking out a 7th, he was slammed into the ground and de-digivolved back to rookie. Raiden was surrounded by the trifeckta of RAY's, knowing there was nothing he could do. He continued firely off madly, for all the good it did.

"I expected more, Jack." One of the RAY's raised it's leg to stomp down on Raiden. He looked up at it, his brain not processing a possible way out. Then, Olga dropped down in front of him, causing the RAY to back off in suprise.

"So...it's you." Solidus commented, stepping out from behind a RAY.

"Olga, don't! You can't reveal yourself!"

"You get away, I'll hold them off!"

"But this is suicide, you know you can't-"

"Your nanomachines are transmitting your vitals to the Patriots. If you die, they kill my child."

"So that's why you sold out your troops to me! They all died trusting you...weren't they your comrades?" Solidus taunted.

"More than just that...they were family! I know I'm going to hell, but if my child-"

"I applaud your attitude. If you have a death wish..." He charged forward, pulling out a P90. "I'll be happy to accommodate you!"

Olga pulled a pistol out and took aim, but one of his tentacles knocked it out of her hands. Then the other tentacle grabbed her neck. He picked her up into the air and spun the P90 on his finger. He stopped the spin and aimed it at her forehead.

"Live...you have to..." Olga got out before it blew her brains out.

"OLGA!" Raiden yelled, but there was nothing he, or the exhausted Patamon, could do. Solidus tossed her to the side carelessly.

"Let's pick up where we left off." He waved at the RAYs, who began to move in on Raiden once again. But suddenly, they froze, started to shake, and their eyes turned red. "Hm?" Solidus turned to face them. They began to move in on Solidus instead. "What the hell?!"

"The AI. GW. It's out of control." Came Ken's voice over a radio. "I'm detecting an abnormal impulse cascade in the neural network. I can't stop it!"

"What the hell happened?!"

"Some kind of...virus..."

"Is it the Patriots?! Ocelot! What are you up to?!"

"It's too late! We're going haywire...Arsenal is on an emergency ascent course!"

Solidus jumped up on top of one of the RAY units, who were now attacking him, and blew into it's head with his P90. It ceased functioning, apperantly the head contained the vital wiring. He then fired a series of missiles out at another one, taking it out, then using his tentacles to slam it into the other. They all fell over. Raiden couldn't believe his eyes, he had taken them out without breaking a sweat.

"Damn the Patriots!" Solidus declared. He used his tentacle to pick up Raiden and aimed his gun at his head...then he slowly lowered it. "You still have use."

Fortune appeared behind them, coming up from the below level. "I've captured Snake." Sure enough, a handcuffed Solid Snake was standing in front of her.

"Bring him in."

Suddenly Raiden passed out. He was exhausted and too drained to stay awake any longer. He just needed a few minutes...not long...

When he awoke, he was still atop Arsenal. Ocelot, Fortune, Snake, and Solidus were standing in front of him, next to a inactive RAY.

"Are you awake, Jack?" Solidus asked of him. "GW is corrupted beyond repair. I underestimated you..." he turned to face him. "I'll squeeze the answers out of you instead, my son!" He reached foward with with a tentacle and began choking him. After a minute, he released him, leaving him gasping for breath.

"You know he doesn't know anything." Fortune shot at him.

"I don't want the answers from him."

"What do you mean?"

"That's none of your business."

"Fine. I have some business of my own to attend to." She turned around and began to slowly walk away.

"Planning to hijack Arsenal?" Fortune froze. "You were going to screw me over, weren't you?"

"Who talked? Ocelot?" Fortune shot an accusing glance at Ken.

"No. I used Ocelot to suggest the idea to you in the first place. I was planning to give you Arsenal to begin with."

Fortune slowly turned around. "What? Why the generosity?"

"Arsenal is far from impregnable. It needs other Metal Gears as guards, a huge payload of warheads, and full land, sea, and air support to function. Against a large attack force without support, Arsenal is nothing more than a massive coffin. Seizing Arsenal was never my intention."

"Then...what was your objective?"

"A list of names. A list of names of the Patriots!" Everyone gasped. "They were planning to take control of digital information flow with GW and Arsenal. Meaning information they wanted filtered out is inside GW. So inside GW should be a list of names of the twelve men in the Wisemen's Committee."

"So I see. And then you would hunt them down, while we drew their fire with our useless Arsenal Gear?"

"Very good."

"You were just using us?"

"And you weren't?" Solidus gave a smirk.

"True...but with GW destroyed, your plan has fallen apart."

"There is another way."

"Well, we'll take Arsenal if you don't care for it. We can still use the Hydrogen bomb. It will damage their power source, the mindless masses they control. First things first."

"I won't stop you. Good luck."

"I have plenty of that." She began to walk away again.

Suddenly, Ken started laughing. Fortune turned to face him. "What's so funny?"

"Charades are usually humorous. But I have to put an end to it, we're running short on time..."

Solidus turned to Ken. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh...everything you've done here has been scripted. A little exercise set up by us."

"What?!"

"Don't you see? The S3 plan was developed to produce soldiers on par with Solid Snake. But the VR training this boy was put through wasn't the meat of the project." He motioned around him. "THIS is the S3 training kernel. You think this incident is your doing, Solidus? This is just an orchestrated recreation of Shadow Moses."

"WHAT?!"

"Ames and President Johnson's deaths...the virus that mimics FOXDIE...did you really think it was all just a coincidence? Ames's own nanomachines were used to shut down his pacemaker. And I arranged for the apperance of the ninja. The president knew what was going on, but he played out his part. The computer virus is a digital counterpart of FOXDIE, and it was designed to eliminate every scrap of info regarding the Patriots from GW. Sorry, but your plan was invalidated even before execution. Fatman was one of our own people, a examiner we hired to test the boy before he really tackled the exercise. We arranged for Stillman to be here to coax him into agreeing. If the boy had allowed the Big Shell to be destroyed, the exercise would have ended there."

"What do you mean?"

Ken chuckled. "Given the right situation and story, anyone can be shaped into Snake. Even rookies fight like veterans. An instant creation of genius, this training kernel will provide enough data to formulate such a program. You, Dead Cell, Olga...you're nothing more than pawns to create the perfect simulation of Shadow Moses. You and the boy were selected because your relationship is largely the same one between Solid Snake and Big Boss. Fortune, you and the rest of Dead Cell represents the FOXHOUND squad that Snake took down in Shadow Moses. The most impressive collection of freaks outside of FOXHOUND. We've gone through alot of trouble, the story about the purified hydrogen bomb is just the tip of the iceburg. This project was already underway when I sunk that tanker along with your old man and husband two years ago. You were told the destruction of Dead Cell was the doing of the Patriots...and you opted for vengance, just like we planned."

"All orchestrated..." Fortune looked shock beyond belief.

"Yes...everything except him." He pointed at Solid Snake. "Him showing up was not part of the simulation. I wonder..."

Fortune raised her Rail Gun and aimed it at Ocelot. "All of my suffering was just a part-"

Ocelot pulled up his Revolver and aimed at Fortune. He shot her through the chest. It didn't miss. She looked down, stunned.

"You're no lady luck. You have nothing we didn't give you."

"What?"

"No bullet could hit you, no grenade could harm you...all staged by the Patriots. You were being shielded by electromagnetic weapons technology. We needed a pathetic wretch like you to keep Dead Cell focused. You've been our puppet all along. Hamming it up as the tragic heroine, just as the script the Patriots wrote up. You couldn't get enough of it."

"So...I could have died whenever I wanted..." she raised her gun again.

"Hm? Thought I got you in the heart."

Fortune fired, but the bullet curved around Ocelot, just as it had Fortune so many times.

"Ah yes. Now I remember. Your heart's on the right." She fired again with the result. "Waste of time. Your luck's run out." He pointed at a device on his belt. "This is the gizmo."

Solidus roared and unleashed a clip out of his P90 at Ocelot, but every bullet curved away from him.

"You bastard!" Fortune managed before falling to the ground. Ocelot jumped up into RAY's cockpit. Solidus fired several missiles from his tentacles up at him, but they all floated away from him. Ocelot started the massive machine up and closed the cockpit up.

"Now that I have enough data, all I have to do is retrieve Arsenal and clean up the refuse from the exercise."

"Bring it on!" Solidus pulled out two swords. RAY fired a stream of bullets at him, but he deflected them all away with his blades. One of them hit Snake's handcuffs, splitting the chain.

Ken stopped firing the machine gun, and instead readied the missile holders on RAY. Fortune got up and ran in front of the group, holding her hands out at RAY.

"Fortune you idiot! Get the hell away!" Solidus yelled.

"Once again, your luck has run out. Take your reward: It's all the Payload RAY has. Die!" Ken fired off every missile RAY had into the sky. They began to come down towards the group.

"EVERYONE DOWN!" Snake yelled, running up to Patamon and picking up him before ducking down.

Then, as if magic, the missiles were deflected outwards just before they hit Fortune. Nobody had a scratch on them. Ocelot was clearly stunned.

"Impossible!" He fired off another explosive, but the same result.

Snake gave a impressed nod. "She is lady luck."

"My name is Helena Dolph Jackson. The daughter of a proud noble soldier." Snake recalled the memory of the commander of the tanker being shot and killed by Ken. So that was her father.

"I...I can see...my family...again..." she collapsed forward, falling to the ground, dead.

"Dammit!" The cockpit opened. "How about this?!" Ocelot was just about to press a button, when his arm began to twitch. "No...no! Not now!" But it was no good. He stood fully upright and climbed out of the cockpit.

"Brothers!" He yelled in the english accent of Liquid.

"Liquid!" Snake and Solidus yelled.

"I've been waiting for this!" He held up his right arm. "I've been inside this arm all along, waiting for the right time to awaken. A sleeper in the arm of a Patriots' spy. He thought he could control me...he thought wrong!"

"So it WAS you two years ago...I thought so."

"Yes. I was controlling him. I leaked information about Arsenal to your partner to get you out here. You're the only one who can free me, after all." He jumped back in cockpit. "I'm off to bury the Patriots for good!"

"You know where they are?"

"Why do you think I chose Ocelot as my host? Before I go, I have a family matter to settle...there's only room for one Snake, and one Big Boss!"

Solidus tried to fire more missiles, but all of them floated away harmlessly from Ken, or Liquid.

"Time to say goodbye!" He closed the cockpit and moved to the edge of Arsenal. "Like surfing, it's a good way to go!" Snake, holding a reenergized Patamon, suddenly took off after the escaping RAY. Patamon took up flying right next to his head.

"Liquid! Stop!"

"Coming?" Ray leaped off the edge and disappeared into the water. Snake jumped in after it, seemingly suicidally.

"Snake!" Raiden screamed. But he was already gone. He felt Arsenal start to move.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Selection for Social Sanity

The massive Arsenal Gear surfaced under Kamiya bridge and began to cruise towards lower Swet. It wasn't going to stop...and who knew how much it would take to stop it? It crashed it's way through Lower Swet and began plowing through buildings and streets alike, slowing only slightly as it went alot. But the force of the crash was enough to send Raiden and Solidus, who were on the top of Arsenal, flying.

They landed some distance away, on top of a building. Luckily for them, Arsenal came to a halt right before it. They slowly got up and looked down on the building they had landed on, silent. Finally Solidus began to speak.

"Federal Hall!" He started to laugh, and threw his arms up in the air.

"What's so funny?" Raiden demanded, getting his senses back.

"Do you know what day today is?"

Raiden nearly swallowed his tongue. Rose had been asking him that so many times...what day is it tomorrow...his biological clock estimated it had past midnight, so the tomorrow Rose referred to would now be today. But what would Solidus know about that?

"...April 30th. Why?"

"That's right." He laughed. "In the real world, there is a place called 'America'. Much like Server, it is the dominant superpower, and our species originally comes from there." Raiden, of course, knew all that. "George Washington took office as the first President of the United States of America exactly 273 years ago, to the day. America has their own Federal Hall building...and Washington took office right in front of it." He motioned to the Federal Hall building they stood on. "And now, on the 273rd anniversary of America declaring their independence, we're going to declare our own independence. The dawn of a new nation, right here. The Patriots' secret rule will end and we will be liberated. This was where it was supposed to begin, where freedom could have been born."

"Nonsense! All you want is power at any cost."

"I don't want power, Jack. I want to take freedom, civil rights and opportunities back from the Patriots. Server was founded by those principles, and it's all about to be wiped out by their digital censorship. Jack, we're all born with an expiration date. We don't last forever. Life is just a grace period for turning over our genetic information to the next generation. Life is transferred from parent to child. But we..." he pointed at himself "...me and my brothers...we have no heirs. Cloned from our father with the ability to reproduce engineered out. If we can not pass the torch, we must find some other way to leave our mark. And the torch being passed is not just DNA. It goes to information as well."

He looked off into the distance. Raiden couldn't help but be moved by this speech. "I want to be remembered. By history. The Patriots are trying to protect themselves by controlling the flow of information. I want my memory to remain. Not as an intron of history, but an exon. That will be my legacy. But the Patriots want to deny me even that. I will triumph over them all and liberate us! And we will become..." he threw his arms up in the air again, "The Son of Liberty!"

Raiden's codec beeped in his ear. Out of reflex, he took it. The colonel.

"Are you receiving?"

"What?! The AI was destroyed?!"

"Only GW..."

"Who the hell are you?"

"We're not what you'd call...human. Over the past 60 years, a kind of...consciousness formed layer by layer in the crucible of the presidential palace. Much like how life started in the ocean 4 billion years ago, the palace was our primordial soup. We are formless, the very discipline and morality that Server invokes so often. As long as this nation exists, so will we, we can't be eliminated."

"So if you're immortal, why do you want to take away individual freedoms and censor the net?!"

Rose's voice. What the hell? "Jack, don't be silly."

"Our plans have your interests, not ours, in mind."

"What?"

"Jack, listen carefully like a good boy!"

"Raiden, the mapping of the humane genome was completed a few years ago. The evolutionary log of the human race lay open to us."

"We started with genetic engineering, and in the end, we digitized life itself."

"But there are things not covered by genetic information."

"What are you talking about?"

"Memories, ideas, cultures, history."

"Genes don't contain any human history."

"Is it something that shouldn't be passed on, and should be left at the mercy of nature?"

"Words, pictures, symbols, tablets, books...we've always kept records of our lives."

"However, not all the information is inherited by the next generation. Like genes, a small percentage of the whole is processed, then passed on."

"That's what history is, Jack."

"In the current world, trivial information accumulates every second, and is preserved. Never fading, always accessible, but completely useless."

"Rumors, petty information, misinterpretations, slander."

"All this junk data is growing at an alarming rate."

"It will only slow down the social progress and rate of evolution."

"Raiden, you seem to think that our plan is one of censorship."

Raiden shook his head, clearing it. These guys were halfway to making sense. "What? You're telling me it's not?!"

"We don't mean to control content, but to create context. Don't be silly."

"What does that mean?"

"The digital society furthers human flaws and selectively rewards development of convenient half-truths. Looks around you at strange Juxtapositions."

"Billions spent on new weapons so we can humanely murder other humans."

"Rights of criminals are given more respect than the privacy of their victims."

"People suffer in poverty, and huge donations are made to protect endangered species. We're all grown up being told the same thing."

"Be nice to other people, but beat out the competition."

"You're special. Believe in yourself and you will succeed."

"But it's obvious only a few can succeed. You exercise your right to freedom and this is what happens. All rhetoric to avoid conflict and protect each other. Untested truths spun by interests churn and accumulate in the sandbox of political correctness and value systems."

"Everyone withdraws into their own gated communities, afraid of a larger forum. They stay in their ponds, and leak whatever 'truth' suits them into the cesspool of society."

"The different cardinal truths neither clash nor mesh. No one is wrong, but no one is right."

"Natural selection can't take place while the world is being engulfed in 'truth'."

"This is the way the world will end. With a whimper, opposed to a bang."

"All we want to do is stop that."

"We are rulers, that's our responsibility. As in genetics, unneeded information and memory needs to be filtered out to stimulate the evolution of the species."

"And since when are you qualified to decide what's needed and what's not?"

"Since always. Who else could wade through the sea of garbage you people produce, retrieve stuff of value, and even interpret their meaning for the next generation?"

"That's what we mean by creating context. We'll tell the next generation of people what to believe, and what the truth is, because they clearly can't handle it."

"I can decide for myself what to believe and pass on!"

"That's not even your own idea."

"Just something Snake told you."

"Proof of your incompetence. You don't have the qualifications to exercise free will."

"That's not true! I have the right-"

"Does something like a 'self' exist inside of you?"

"That which you call 'self' is nothing more than a mask to cover your own being."

"In this era of ready-made 'truths', 'self' is just something used to preserve positive emotions you feel sometimes..."

"Or 'self' is a concept you borrowed hoping it would endow you with some sense of strength..."

"That's crap!"

"Would you prefer someone else tell you? Alright then. Explain it to him."

"Jack, you're simply the best! And you got there all by yourself!"

"Grr..."

"What happened? Feel lost? Try some soul-searching."

"You won't find anything, though."

"Ironic that although 'self' is something that you fashioned, every time something goes wrong, you place the blame on someone else."

""It's not my fault. It's not your fault.""

"In denial, you look for a more convenient 'truth' so you can feel better."

"Leaving behind the 'truth' you used to embrace."

"People who do such things should not be allowed to decide what truth is."

"Should they even have the right to decide?"

"You've done nothing but abuse your freedom."

"You don't deserve to be free!"

"We're not smothering the world. You are, Raiden. You and your kind."

"The individual is supposed to be weak, but not powerless. A single individual can ruin the world."

"The age of digitized communication has given the individual more power, too much for an immature species."

"To build a legacy, you have to figure out what is wanted, and what needs to be done. You used to struggle with this. Now, we think for you."

"We are your guardians after all."

"What? You're out to control human thought and behavior?"

"Exactly. Anything can be quantified today. That's what this exercise was designed to prove."

"You fell in love with me just as you were meant to, after all. Right, Jack?"

"Ocelot was not told the whole truth."

"We rule this entire country. A single soldier, no matter how able, is of no interest to us."

"The S3 plan does not stand for Solid Snake Simulation. What it does stand for is Selection for Social Sanity." A pause. "The S3 is a system for controlling human will and consciousness. S3 is not you, a soldier trained in the image of Solid Snake. S3 is a protocol that created a circumstance that made you what you are."

"So you see, we're the S3, not you."

"What you experienced was the final test of it's effectiveness."

"That's crazy."

"You heard what President Johnson said."

President Johnson's voice was played through the codec. "GW is the key to their supremacy."

The colonel started up again. "The point of this exercise was to establish a method. We used Shadow Moses as a paradigm for it."

"I wonder if you would have preferred a fantasy setting."

"We chose it for it's extreme circumstances. An optimal test for S3's crisis management ability. If the model could trigger, control, and solve this, it would be ready for anything. And now it is. Raiden, there was another reason for your selection. Solidus raised many child soldiers. Do you know why we chose you?"

"Why?"

"You were the only one who refused to acknowledge the past. All the others remember what they were and pay for it every day!"

"You turn your back on everything you don't like. You do whatever you like and see things only for yourself."

"Rose can attest to that."

"You refused to see me for what I was. I lied to you, but wanted to be caught. You pretended to understand and be a gentleman, and never made an attempt to reach out to me. You only did once, when I gave you no choice but to do so."

"I was just trying not to-"

"hurt me?! Dear, the one you were trying not to hurt was yourself! Avoiding the truth under he guise of kindness is all you did! You do nothing but look out for yourself. Even if you claim it was for my sake, that feeling was nowhere to be seen. Everything was for your sake, I was never part of the picture."

"Exactly. You're a perfect representation of the masses we wish to protect. That's why you were chosen, you accepted the fiction we provided, obeyed our orders, and did everything you were told to. This exercise is a resounding success."

"Thanks to you, GW is now complete."

"Your persona, experiences, triumphs and defeats are byproducts. The real objective was ensuring that we could generate and manipulate them. It took alot of time and money, but considering the results it was well worth it. That's enough talk. Time for the final exercise. Raiden, take Solidus down!"

"Forget it! I'm through listening to you guys!"

"Oh? Aren't you forgetting something?"

An audio clip of Olga played. "If you die, they kill my child."

"If your vital signals are terminated, Olga's child will die. So will Rose, she's wired the same way."

"So Rose is actually real?"

"Yes, Jack! You have to beLIEve me!'

"Dammit..."

"It will be a fight to the death."

"If you don't kill Solidus, Solidus will kill you."

"We'll be collecting the necessary data from this last fight, then the exercise is closed. So, Jack the Ripper, what will it be? Solidus, the Patriots' creation, or Jack, Solidus's creation. Our beloved monsters. Enjoy yourself." The connection cut. Raiden turned back to Solidus, who had allowed Raiden to have his convo unbothered.

"Jack...my son. My clone brothers and I are called monsters. Replicates of evil genes. You are one of a kind...but still a monster, shaped by a dark history. We need to decide which monstrosity will have the privilege of survival. Oh, Jack...before you die...I was the one who killed your parents!"

"What?!"

"I claimed you for my own, and raised you as a soldier in the army of the devil. I am your foster father, and worst enemy."

"Why?"

"I needed to know whether we were really someone else's creation. We're repeating history, Jack. Liquid and Solid hunted down Takeru to sever the tie that bound them to him. If you don't kill me and face your past, you will never escape. You'll stay in an endless loop. Now, it's time we are both free."

He threw Raiden a sword, arcing it through the air. It landed with a resounding thud in front of him, and he picked it up. Solidus drew two of his own. "The clues to the Patriots inside GW have been erased...but there are other traces...inside you!"

"What?"

"Your nanomachines...through them I can track the Patriots...I'll claim them after I kill you." He readied himself. "Brace yourself!" And then he charged.

The fight was on. The metal clinked as the swords met in midair fiercely. Raiden knew how to handle a sword, but was no expert, and was outmanned 2 to 1. But he managed to effectively block, he was always a good blocker. Solidus tried to attack from two places at once, but Raiden would slide to the right to avoid one and block the other, or step backwards, or flex out of the way.

Solidus grew frustrated and began to let his guard down, allowing Raiden to land a slice on his thigh. As they fought, the colonel began talking into Raiden's ear again.

"Raiden! You have to beat Solidus! This is your last duty!"

He jumped back from Solidus and took a moment to respond. "We're not just pawns in some simulation game, you know!" He took the attack back up, getting Solidus worn down.

"Yes, you are. You're nothing more than weapons, like jets and tanks."

"The Metal Gear model that was destroyed four years ago was REX..."

"The new amphibious model is RAY..."

"These are both the same codenames used by the U.S.A.F. to refer to Japanese war planes during WW2."

"Your codename, Raiden, comes from the Japanese navy's name for one of it's interceptors."

He launched a major slice down Solidus's chest. "Stop! I'm not a weapon!"

"Oh really? Do you know the codename the U.S.A.F. used for the japanese fighter 'Raiden'?"

"Jack."

"Both of you are just weapons to be used and thrown away. And a weapon has no right to think for itself. Now, fulfill your purpose! Defeat Solidus!"

Suddenly, the tentacle arms on Solidus flew off, he caught on fire, and began a vicious attack on Raiden. Raiden took some nasty hits, and it was all he could do to just protect himself. Solidus was about to come down with both swords from above through his head, when Raiden made his move. He sidestepped it neatly and ran behind him as Solidus came down hard where he had just been standing. He pushed the sword through his back, into his spine. Blood and electric sparks combined in midair as both poured out of the wound. Solidus dropped both his swords and began to stagger about. He ended up wandering over to the edge of the building.

He looked down over the edge, then turned back to Raiden. He said...something, Raiden saw him moving his lips, but couldn't tell what it was. Then, he fell backwards over the edge, left arm outstretched. Raiden raised his arm in triumphed, then walked up to the edge to look down at Solidus. He was laying at the feet of a statue of Tai Kamiya. Then, his arms fell to his side. He was dead.

Raiden climbed down into the street below. It was deserted. It took a few minutes for it to fill with people once again. Some people ran towards Federal Hall, police officers. Nobody took notice of Raiden. Leaving him to ponder everything that had just happened.

"Who am I really..."

A familiar voice from behind him. "No one knows who or what they are." He swung around to find Snake standing right behind him, Patamon at his side. "Memories and roles are burdens you carry. It doesn't matter if they're real or not. There's no such thing as absolute reality. Most of what they call real is actually fiction. What you think you see is only as real as your brain tells you it is."

"Then what do I believe in? What am I going to leave behind?"

"We can tell other people about having faith. What we had faith in. What we fought for. It's not whether or not you were right or wrong, but how much faith you had, that decides the future. The Patriots are kind of an ongoing fiction too, come to think of it."

Raiden looked confused.

"Look, don't obsess over it so much. Find the meaning behind the words, then decide. Find your own name and future..."

"Decide for myself?"

"And whatever you chose will be you."

"I don't know if I can..."

"I know you didn't have many choices this time. But everything you felt and thought about during the mission was yours. What you decide to do with them is up to you."

"You mean start over?"

"Yeah. Clean slate. New name, new memories. Chose your legacy. Time for you to decide. Up to you."

"Alright...yeah...I'll pick my own name...and my own life. I'll find something worth passing on. They taught me some good things too."

"I know. We inherited freedom from those who fought for it. We have the freedom to spread the word."

Suddenly, he remembered. "What about Olga's child?"

"I'll find him. Don't worry. As long as you're alive, he's safe."

"What about Liquid?"

"I put a transmitter on RAY. He's heading for the Patriots, but I'll bet they gave Ocelot a bogus location anyway." He saw the disappointed look on Raiden's face. "Don't worry." He pulled out a disc from his pocket. "We have a better lead."

"I thought Ocelot took that!"

"The one I gave you wasn't the real thing. This is, has a list of all the Patriots."

"What?"

"The virus was coded to destroy the part of GW that had information about the Patriots. Meaning there is a parameter in here that defines what that info is."

"I get it...count me in."

"No, you've got things to do first. And people you need to talk to." Snake pointed behind Raiden, then turned to leave. Raiden turned and set his eyes on...Rose.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked as Raiden walked up to her.

"...nothing. Can I ask you something? Who am I?"

"I wouldn't know...but we're going to find out together, aren't we?"

"Ummm...sure."

"See me for what I am, okay?"

"I know."

She spun around, motioning about. "Do you remember this place?"

"Yes...where we first met. I remember now...today is the day I met you. That's it! You know, I think I've found something to pass on to the future. He said...all living things want their genes to live on."

"Are you talking about the baby?"

"Yeah. Genes aren't all you pass on though. Too many things aren't written into our DNA. We have to teach that to children. About the enviroment, our ideas, culture...poetry, compassion...sorrow, joy...everything...we'll tell them everything, together."

"Is that a proposal?"

Raiden leaned in next to her. "This is for your ears only..."

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Some distance away, Otacon contacted Snake on the codec.

"Snake, it's me. I've gone over that disc."

"You find the Patriots' list?"

"Yep. Contains the personal data of twelve people. There was a name on it, Snake...one of our biggest contributors."

"What's going on around here?"

"Don't know. Anyway, we were right about them being here in Swet...but..."

"But what?"

"They're already dead...all twelve of them."

"When?"

"Ermmm...almost a hundred years ago."

"What the hell?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And that concludes my story, and for the moment, this saga. Part four may be begun, but not for quite some time, if ever, so enjoy the first three parts for now. I hope anyone who read all the way through it enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please, if you read it all the way through, review with your thoughts!


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